LAKE SUPERIOR: 



LAKE SUPERIOR: 



PHYSICAL CHARACTER, VEGETATION, AND ANIMALS, 



COMPARED WITH THOSE OF OTHER AND SIMILAR REGIONS, 



LOUIS IgASSIZ. 
WITH A NARRATIVE OF THE TOUR, 



J.ELLIOT CABOT, 



r ,^ 



s^T^j^; 



^ 1SM\ 







CONTRIBUTIONS BY OTHER SCIENTIFIC GENTLEMEN. 



ELEGANTLY ILLUSTRATED, 




BOSTON: 

GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN, 

59 Washington Street. 

1850. 



fS'S 



A^ 



fo 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, 

By Godld, Kendall & Lincoln, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



boston: 

Damrell & Moore, Printers, 

16 Devonshire Street. 



PREFACE. 



The main object of the excursion, the results of which 
are given in the following pages, was a purely scientific 
one, viz. : the study of the Natural History of the north- 
ern shore of Lake Superior. Another end proposed by 
Professor Agassiz, was, to afford to those of the party 
who were unaccustomed to the practical investigation of 
natural phenomena, an opportunity of exercising them- 
selves under his direction. 

The party was composed of the following gentlemen : 
Prof Agassiz and Dr. William Keller, instructors, and 
Messrs. George Belknap and Charles G. Kendall, stu- 
dents, of the Lawrence Scientific School ; Messrs. James 
McC. Lea, GeorgeH. Timmins, and Freeman Tompkins, 
of the Dane Law School ; Messrs. Eugene A. Hoffman, 
Charles G. Loring, Jonathan C. Stone, and Jefferson 
Wiley, of the senior class of Harvard College ; Messrs. 
Joseph P. Gardner and J. Elliot Cabot, of Boston ; Drs. 
John L. Le Conte and Arthur Stout, of New York ; and 
M. Jules Marcou, of Paris. 

Interspersed throughout the Narrative are reports, care- 
fully made at the time, of the Professor's remarks on 
various points of Natural History, that seemed to him 



IV PREFACE. 

likely to interest a wider circle than those more particu- 
larly addressed in the second part of the book, which 
consists of papers on various points connected with the 
Natural History of the region, written, where liot other- 
wise specified, by Prof Agassiz. This portion of the 
work, however, does not aim at a mere detail of facts, 
but is intended to show the bearing of these facts upon 
general questions. 

The Landscape Illustrations are taken from sketches 
made on the spot, by Mr. Cabot. Those of the Second 
Part were drawn and lithographed by Mr. Sonrel, a Swiss 
artist of much distinction in this branch, and formerly 
employed by Prof Agassiz at Neuchatel, but now resident 
in this country. 

Boston, March, 1850. 



CONTENTS. 



I. NARRATIVE. 

CHAP. I. 

BOSTON TO THE SAULT DE ST. MARIE. 

Boston to Albany — Lecture from the Professor — Valley of the Mo- 
hawk — Population of German descent — Wild scener}"- of Western New 
York — Niagara — Remarks by Prof. Agassiz on the Geology and Botany 
of this Region — Lunar rainbow — The suspension bridge — Rattlesnakes 
— Peculiar color of the water — Steamer to the foot of the Falls — 
Buffalo — Steamer for Mackinaw — Botanical Lecture — The Great Lakes — 
Boat in distress — Cleveland — Detroit — Lake St. Clair — Flats — Lake Hu- 
ron — Northern character of the scenery — Meteorological phenomenon — 
Mackmaw — Fishing party and Lecture on Fishes — Boat for the Sault — 
Les mouches — First experiment of camping out — The Detour — St. Jo- 
seph's Island and the Major — Passage up the St. Mary's Straits — Mus- 
quitoes — Arrival at the Sault 9-31 

CHAP. II. 

THE SAULT TO FORT WILLIAM. 

The Sault — Dissolute character of the population — Lecture on Fishes 
of the Sault — The black fly — Lecture on the Classification of Birds — 
Embarcation on Lake Superior — Canoes — Canadian voyageurs and In- 
dians — The Pointe aux Pins — Voyageur's bread — Entrance of the lake 
— Resemblance to the sea-coast — Les gens du Lac — Arrangement of the 
messes — Routine of the day — Provisions — Drift-scratches and grooves 
— Mineralogical remarks by the Professor — Grand scenery of the lake 
— Catching the lake trout— Character of rocks and trees — Great va- 
riations of temperature — Coldness of the water — Mica Bay — Hospitality 
■ of Capt. Matthews— A proof of the " Glacial Theory"— Montreal River 
— Large red pines — Tamias quadrivittatus — Indian pictures — Transpa- 
rency of the water — Cautiousness of the voyageurs — Boat songs — 
Fishing Indians — Toad River — Character of river-mouths on the lake 
— Increasing grandeur of the scenery — Brilliancy of the lichens — 
Agate Bay — Indian legend— Cape Choyye — Pot-holes— Snow — Michi- 
picotin River — The factory — The plague of flies — Indian hunters— 
1* 



VI CONTENTS. 

The fill- trade — Climate — The fisheries — Our voyageurs — Terraces — E.iv. 
a la Chienne — An Indian tombstone — Les Ecrits — Character of the 
woods — Cliffs — Otter Head — A cedar swamp — Alteration of temperature 
— The Northern Lights — The Pic — Birds and fishes — One of the party 
ill with fever — Drowned insects — Pic Island — Fires in the woods^ — 
Caribous — Parus Hudsonicus — Terraces — The Professor's remarks on 
Metallic Veins — Les Petits Ecrits — Islands — An Indian Eamily — Usnea 
— St. Ignace — Deserted Mining Location — Ascent of Mt. Cambridge — 
Furrows on the beaches — Masses of lichen — Ripple marks — Thunder 
Cape — Fort William — The Kaministiquia River — The Fort — Acjuatic 
Cows — Excursion to Kakabeka Falls — Paddles and oars — The river — 
A DC-charge — Character of the interior of this region — Heavy dew — 
The Falls 31-89 

CHAP. IIL 

FORT WILLI/VM BACK TO THE SAULT. 

The Pate — Remarks by the Professor on the Distribution of Animals 
and Plants — Prince's Location — Minerals — Spar Island — the Victoria 
Islands — The Professor's remarks on Mineral Veins — Swell on the lake 
— Structure of the Pate — Varieties of the lake trout — Spawning of the 
various fishes of the lake — Gulls breeding — Sails of birch bark — Neepi- 
gon Bay — Cape Gourgan — Deserted mining location — Prof. Agassiz on 
the Outlines of Continents — The miner's huts — Conjectures as to their 
winter life — Scudding before the wind — " Dirty Water"-i-Head winds 
— Remarkable trap dyke — Terraces measured — Black River — Intricacy 
of the woods — Falls of Black River — Lecture on the Drift Formations 
of the Lake — The brown bear — Drift wood — Habits of the grouse — An 
Es'iuimaux dog — A port in a storm — Degrades — Lake contrasts — La 
Viello — A sweating house — Difference in vegetation — Trap dykes — 
Half breeds — A calm on the lake — Foxes — Trout fishing — Michipicotin 
again — Moisture of the atmosphere — Indian dogs — Excursion to Michi- 
picotin Falls — Features of the country — The Portage — The Falls — 
Palcontological pot-holes — The Sandy Islands — A fox in exile — "Fran- 
9ais" and " Sauvages" — Difficult embarcation — Gros Cap — White flow- 
ering raspberry — The outlet of the lake — Arrive all together — Shooting 
the Rapids 89-123 

CHAP. IV. 

FROM THE SAULT HOMEWARDS. 

Description of Lake Superior — Steamer for Sturgeon Bay — Scenery of 
the St. Mary's Straits — The Bruce Mine — Miners inj ured by an explosion 
— St. Joseph's — Remarkable boulder — Observations on it by the Profes- 
sor — The Theologico-geological question mooted — The Grand Manitou- 
liu— The "presents" to the Indians — Gross injustice of the present sys- 
tem — Penetanguishene — Sturgeon Bay — A rough road — Change in veg- 



CONTENTS. Vn 

etation — Cold Water — Lake Simcoe — Holland landing — St. Albans — 
Country on the Toronto road — Toronto — Lockport — Ileraarkable drift 
groove — Home 123-133 



II. NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE NORTHERN VEGETATION COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE JURA AND THE ALPS. 

Geographical distribution ; animals and plants not scattered at ran- 
dom over the face of the earth ; causes of this; temperature, 137. — 
Moisture; light; atmospheric pressure, 138. — Evinced in the fragrance 
of Alpine flovv^ers, 139. — Electricity; geographical features, 140, 141. — 
But physical agents not originally causative ; peculiarities of North 
America; latitude, 142. — Limits of these agencies, 144. — EA'idenccs of 
a Supreme Intelligence, 145. — CoRparison of vegetation of temperate 
regions, 146, 147. — Of Alpine and Northern vegetation, 148-9. — Of 
recent and fossU species ; coincidence of EurojDean tertiary fossils with 
living species in America, 150-2 .'. 137-152 

II. 

OBSERVATIONS ON THE VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Agreement of vegetation of Lake Superior with that of the higher 
tracts of the Jura, 153. — Parallel lists of the plants of these regions, 
154-170. — Enumeration of lichens collected at Lake Superior, 170-4. — 
Parallel lists of Lake Superior plants in general and their analogues in 
Europe, 175-9. — Comparison of the vegetation of North America in 
general with that of Switzerland, 179-188. — List of European plants 
observed along several lines of railroad, 188-90 153-190 

III. 

CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS FROM EMBRYONIC AND PALiEOZOIC DATA. 

Internal structure an insufficient basis for classification, 191-2. — 
Embryonic features of various animals, as denoting a respectively inferior 
rank, 193-200 191-200 

IV. 

GENERAL REMARKS UPON THE COLEOPTERA OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 
BY DR. JOHN I. LECOXTE. 

Geographical distribution, 201-2. — List of species collected, 203-239. — 
Observations on the characters of the insect fauna of Lake Superior, 
239-241. — Account of the larva and pupa of a coleopterous insect from 
Niagara Falls, referred by Dekay to the Crustaceans, 241-2 201-242 



vm CONTENTS. 

V. 

CATALOGUE OF SHELLS, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 
BT DB. A. A. GOULD. 

Catalogue 243-245 

VI. 

PISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR COMPARED WITH THOSE OF THE OTHER GREAT CANADIAN 

LAKES. 

Geographical distribution ; the prevalence of general laws over 
mere peculiarities of position and circumstances, 246-7. — Migrating 
animals do not wander, but regularly return ; light thrown on the 
question of unity or plurality of creations by the examination of the 
fishes of Lake Superior, 248. — Examination of the question whether 
the Petromyzons should form a subclass by themselves, or be classed 
with the skates and sharks, and conclusion that they are simply embry- 
onic forms of the latter type, 249-52. — Description of Ammoccetes 
borealis, 252-4. — Lepidosteus, as showing the reptilian character of the 
ancient fishes, 254-63. — ^The sturgeons ; their geographical distribution, 
263-4. — Circumscribed within narrow limits in vaiious parts of the 
world, yet linked together by intermediate forms ; peculiarity of their 
distribution in America, 265-6. — Acipenser kevis, Agass., 267-71. — A. 
carbonarius, Agass., 271-6. — A. rynchaus, Agass., 276-7. — A. Rupertianus, 
277-8. — On the position of the Siluridse and Goniodonts as aberrant 
families of the order of Gadoids, 278-9. — The genus Pimelodus ; proba- 
bly to be further subdivided ; remarks on several species, 279-80. — 
P. felts, Agass., 281-4. — Genus Percopsis, Agass., representative of an 
ancient type of the tertiary period ; intermediate between Percoids and 
Salmonidse, 284-5. — P. gutiatm, Agass., 286-9. — Percoids ; great dif- 
ference in their distribution, between Lake Superior and the Lower 
Lakes, 289-91. — Observations on Perca flavescens, 291-3. — On Potnotis 
vulf/aris, 293. — Lucioperca Americana; value of the opercular spines as 
distinctive mark in this genus, 294-5. — Grystes fasciatus, Agass., 295-7. 
Huro nigricans, Cuv., a Grystes, 297. — Cottoids ; importance of correct 
appreciation of the connecting character, rather than the amount of 
external variation, in classification, 297-8. — Subfamily of Etheostomata ; 
Etheostoma; Pileoma; P^cilosoma, Agass., Boleosoma, 298-9. — Cot- 
tus ; character of genus ; various opinions as to number of species, 
300. — C. Richanhoni, Agass.. 300-3.— C. FranJdini, Agass., 303-4.— 
BoLEOsoMA, characters of, 304. — B. mactilatum, Agass., 305-7. — Pileoma; 
characters of this genus, 307-8. — P. zebra, Agass., 308-10.— Gasterosfeiis 
ncbulosus, Agass., 310-14. — G. pygm(eus, Agass., 314-15. — Family 
EsociD^, 315-17. — Esox boreus, Agass., 317-21. — Family Gadoids ; ob- 
scurity of their real affinities ; disagreements and uncertainties as to 
certain North American genera and species, 321-4. — Lota maculosa. 



CONTENTS. IX 

32.')-6. — Family SALMONiniE, observations on their classification and 
gcof^raphical distribution, 326. — Showing plan of Sujjrcrae Intelligence, 
327-30. — Salmo fontinalis, 330-31. — S. namaycush, observations upon, 

331-3 iS. siscmoct, Agass., 333-36. — Coregonus, observations on the, 

336-9. — C. chqKiformis, 339-42. — C albus, 342-4. — 6'. sapidissimus, 
Agass., 344-4S. — C. latior, Agass., 348-51. — C. quadrilateralis, 351-2. — 
Family CyppaxoiDS, distribution, 352-3. — Rhinichthys, Agass., 353-4. — 
R. marmoratus, Agass., 354-6. — Catostomus, difficulties in the study of 
this genus, 356-7. — C. aureolus, 327. — C. Forsteriamis, Agass., 358-60. — C 
atirora, Agass., 3G1-3. — Albuenus, 363. — A. rubellus, Agass., 364-6. 
Gobio 2)lumbeus, Agass., 366-8. — Leucisciis frontalis, Agass., 368-70. — L. 
gracilis, Agass., 370-2. — L. Hudsonius, 372-3. — General observations ; all 
freshwater fishes of North America different from those of Europe ; 
I^ake Sviperior and the lakes north of it constitute a distinct zoological 
district, 373-5. — These fishes must haA^e been created where they now 
live, 376.— Deductions from this fact, 377 246-377 

VII. 

DESCRIPTION OF SOME NEW SPECIES OP REPTILES FROM THE REGION OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Hylodes maculatus, Agass., 378-9. — Rana nigricans, Agass., 379-80. — 
Crotophoriis, sp., probably identical with C. tergcminus, 381. — Further 
list of reptiles of Lake Superior ; large size of some species ; turtles 
not found on northern shores of the lake, 382 378-382 

VIII. 

REPORT ON THE BIRDS COLLECTED AND OBSERVED AT LAKE SUPERIOR. 
BT J. E. CABOT. 

Striking scarcity of birds and quadrupeds ; causes of this, 383-4. — List 
of species, 384-5 383-385 

IX. 

DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME SPECIES OF LEPIDOPTERA, FROM THE NORTHERN SHORES OF 

LAKE SUPERIOR. 

BY DR. THABDEUS WILLIAM HARRIS. 

Pontia oleracea, 386. — Deilcphila Chamancrii, 387-8. — Smerinthus mo- 

desta, 388-9. — Hepiolus argenteo-maculatus, 389-90 Arctia parthenos, 

390-1. — Arctia Americana, 391. — Ennomos macularia, 392. — List of Lep- 
idopterous insects, taken by Professor L. Agassiz on the northern shore 
of Lake Superior, 392-4 386-394 

X. 

THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA ABOUT LAKE SUPERIOR. 

The most minute and careful investigation of drift by the glacialists ; 
whereas their opponents simply deny, 395. — The various erratic basins 



X CONTENTS. 

of Switzerland distinct, and the materials in well- determined order, 
396. — Similar phenomena observed in other parts of Europe, 396-7. — 
Points necessary to be settled ; lirst, the relation in time and character, 
between the Northern and the Alpine erratics, 397. — Traced in North 
America, 397-8. — Not yet settled whether any local centres of distribu- 
tion in this country ; but the general cause must have acted in all paits 
simultaneously, 398. — The action ceased at 35° north latitude; this 
incompatible with the notion of currents, 399. — In both hemispheres a 
direct reference to the polar regions, 400. — Diihculty as to so extensive 
formation of ice, removed ; difficulties on the theory of currents, the 
effects contrary to experience of water-action, 401. — Erratic phenomena 
of Lake Superior, 401-4. — The iceberg theory, 405-6. — Description of 
appearances at Lake Superior, 406-9. — Drift ; contains mud, and is 
without fossils, 409. — Example of juxtaposition of stratified and un- 
ptratified drift, at Cambridge, 410. — Date of these phenonema not fully 
determined, but doubtless simultaneous all over the globe, 410-411. — 
The various periods and kinds of drift distinguished, 412. — Accompanied 
by change of level in the continent ; terraces at Lake Superior, 413-14. — 
Not fi'om a subsidence of the water, but from upheaval of the land, 
414-416 395-416 

XL 

THE OUTLINES OP LAKE SUrERIOR. 

The present phj'sical state of oux globe the result of gradual and suc- 
cessive changes, 417. — Necessity of studying out in detail minor aird 
secondary phenomena, 418. — Position and general features of the Great 
Lakes, 419-20. — Lake Superior; the dykes correspond in direction with 
the trend of the shores, 420. — Details, 421-2. — Enumeration of the 
various systems of dykes, 423-4. — These dykes have cut up the primi- 
tive formations so as to produce the jn-esent outlines of the lake, 424-5. 
— The rocks of Lake Superior as evidence that the erratics of more 
southern localities were derived from the primitive range extending 
north of the lakes to the Atlantic, 425-6 417-426 

XII. 

GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE VARIOUS COPPER DEPOSITS OP LAKE SUPERIOR. 

The distribution of the copper ores at Lake Superior, as indicating 
their origin ; the native copper plutonic and unchanged near the centre 
of eruption, but modified and combined at a distance, 427-428 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



I. LANDSCAPES. 

Page. 

1. Lake Terraces near Black River Frontispiece. 

2. Rn'ER Terraces, Toad River 54 

3. Camp at Michipicotin 62 

4. Island of St. Ignace 78 

5. Thunder Cape 80 

6. Kakabeka Falls 86 

7. Rapids, Black River 101 

8. Pic Island lOG 



n. NATURAL HISTORY. 

1 . Percopsis GUTTATU8 ; Salmo siscowet 333 

2. Rhinichthys marmoratus ; Catostomus aurora 354 

3. Alburnus rubellus ; Leuciscus frontalis 364 

4. Gasterosteus pygmjEus ; G. nebulosus ; Boleosoma maculatum ; Ethe- 

OSTOMA ZEBRA 305 

5. ACIPENSER CARBONARIUS 271 

6. Hylodes MACULATUS ; Rana nigricans; and a Crotalophorus 378 

7. Seven species of Lepidoptera, and two new shells 387 

8. Twelve new species of Coleoptera 239 

9. The outlines of Lake Superior, showing the several systems of dykes, 

and the direction of the glacial scratches in various localities 417 



ERRATA. 

Page 10, Note, for Tocelyn read Jocelyn. 

Page 31, for SauH to Michijjicotin read Sault to Fort William. 
Page 58, for Jtniijjenis Virginianus read J. virginimia. 

Page 384, first line of list, the specific names cedrorum and cacalotl should exchange 
places. 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



NAREATIYE. 



CHAPTER I. 

BOSTON TO THE SAULT DE ST. MARIE. 

We left Boston on the loth of June, 1848, at 8 A.M., In the cars 
for Albany. The weather was warm, and we were well powdered 
with dust, when, at about 6 P.M., we arrived at the ferrj on 
the Hudson. The Western appears to be more e.xposed to this 
nuisance of dust than the other railroads, probably from the many 
cuts through banks of crumbling clay and gravel. We were inter- 
ested to hear that a contrivance for watering the track had been 
proposed and successfully experimented on. 

At the hotel we found the New York members of our party, which 
now numbered eighteen. After tea we assembled in a large room up 
stairs, where Prof. Agassiz made the following remarks on the region 
over which we had passed : — 

" The soil of this tract is of great variety, but everywhere presents this 
feature : that its surface is covered with loose materials, all erratic, (or be- 
longing to rocks whose natural position is distant from the points where 
these fragments are found,) and all evidently transported at a very remote 
epoch. These erratics are of all sizes, from sand to large rocks ; the larger 
ones angular ; the smaller ones more or less rounded, scratched and polished, 
as are also the surfaces of tha rocks on which they rest. These polished 
rocks have been noticeable to-day, especially to the westward of Worcester. 
These marks we shall find still more strongly shown as we proceed north- 
ward. 

"We have nowhere seen tmaltered rocks, but exclusively those of a 
granitic character, metamorphosed from originally stratified formations by the 



10 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

action of heat. Thus, for instance, the blackish mica slate, with veins of 
quartz, — which so frequently occurs on our route of to-day — is probably 
clay slate, altered by intense heat, which has produced several varieties 
of silicate of alumina. There is no clearly defined division between 
these slates ; they pass without interruption from baked clay into 
chloritic slates. In one place in the Connecticut valley we saw red sand- 
stone, generally in a horizontal position, except where disturbed by trap. 
Nearer x^lbany we passed through a region of highly metamorphic lime- 
stone, belonging to the oldest geological deposits. We have also seen indi- 
cations of the Potsdam sandstone, one of the most ancient fossiliferous 
rocks. 

" As to the vegetation, it is to be remarked in general, that the features 
of a country are given principally by its plants. These mark the variety of 
the soil, and its formation. The forests which we have seen to-day consist of 
a great variety of plants, mingled together. We have seen no forests com- 
posed of one species of tree. In the mountainous parts, indeed, certain 
species predominate, but elsewhere several are found in almost equal pro- 
portions. Among these are various pines ; the white and pitch pines, the 
spruce, hemlock, red cedar, and a few larches. Then the Amentaceae, 
viz., oaks, birches, chestnut, beech, poplar, and the platanus or button wood, 
(which is in a sickly condition, probably from injury done to the younw 
wood by frosts,) hickories, elms, locust, ash, and maples, but the latter fewer 
in number. The hickories never form forests. About Niagara we shall 
find the beech abundant. Of shrubs, we have seen a great variety : e. g., 
sumachs of several species, (whereas in Europe there is but one,) elder, 
alder, cornus, viburnum, witch-hazel, willows, wild roses, and grapes. A 
remarkable feature of the vegetation of this country is, the number of species 
of grape, mostly useless for the manufacture of wine. Shrubs peculiar to 
America, are the Kalmias; viz., mountain-laurel and sheepsbaue. In the 
meadows are various grassy plants, carices, and ferns ; the latter in great 
variety. These spots exhibit probably a condition analogous to that of the 
Coal Period, in which the ferns, &c., prevailed. All the plants growing on 
the roadsides are exotics, as are also all the cultivated plants and grasses. 
Everywhere in the track of the white man we find European plants ; the 
native weeds have disappeared before him like the Indian.* Even along the 
railroads we find few indigenous species. For example, on the railroad 
between Boston and Salem, although the ground is uncultivated, all the 
plants along the track and in the ditches are foreign. From this circum- 

* Old Tocelyn says the Indians call the common plantain {Plantago major,) " the 
•white man's foot." 



NARRATIVE. 



11 



stance, erroneous conclusions have been drawn as to the identity of species 
on the European and American continents. 

" The combination of trees in forests is an important point in the physiog- 
nomy of a country. The forests of Europe are much more uniform in this 
respect than those of this country, from the greater variety of allied species 
here. Thus, in Central Europe, there are but two species of oak, and no 
wahiut whatever ; the so-called English walnut being a Persian tree. In 
the United States there are over forty species of oak ; in Massachusetts 
there are eleven kinds of oak, and six of walnuts and hickories. 

' ' Another important point is the distribution of water. "We have crossed 
to-day three distinct basins, having no connection with each other, viz. , that 
of the Atlantic coast, the Connecticut valley, and the valley of the Hudson. 
It would be interesting to examine how far each of these basins has a pecu- 
liar fcnma." 

June IQth. — ^At half-past seven this morning, after not a little wor- 
ry, owing to the very defective arrangements at the railroad station, 
we set off in the cars for Buffalo. Weather hot, but as our course lay 
up the flat valley of the Mohawk, there were no more cuts, and the 
dust was not so troublesome as yesterday. "We passed through level, 
well-cultivated fields, spotted in many places mth. the bright yellow 
flower of the mustard, just in blossom. 

This rich alluvial plain very early attracted settlers. Part of 
it bears the name of the German Flats, from its first inhabitants, 
and the names of the towns along the route, such as Manheim, 
Palatine Bridge, &c., indicate an immigration from the Palatinate. 
The Dutch and German blood is still predominant here, as is shown 
by the names on the signs, the neat little red-painted houses, with 
open loggias and drive-ways, and the huge barns of this race of 
thiifty cultivators. 

After an uncomfortable night in the cars, we found ourselves at 
daylight surrounded by the forest. Huge unbranching trunks, clear 
of undergrowth ; occasional clearings, with log houses, and the com 
or potatoes scattered among charred stumps. From Utica, west- 
ward, along this road, one is constantly reminded of the "West. The 
land here, too, is much of it uncleared, cheap, and fertile ; on the 
other hand, aguish. In short, the advantages and disadvantages 
are those of the West. From the abundance of pigs and children, 



12 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

and the untidy look of the cabins, one conjectures the settlers are 
mostly the former laborers on the railroad, or at least countrymen 
of theirs. 

June 17th. — At 8 A. M. we arrived in Buffalo, after about thirty- 
six hours' actual travelling from Boston, a distance of 527 miles. 
We had previously ascertained that it would be advisable to wait 
until the 19th before embarking for Mackinaw, in order to give time 
for procuring stores, tents, &c., and had determined to spend the 
intervening time at Niagara. On our arrival we found that the 
morning train for Niagara was to start at 9 ; so leaving some 
of the party to make arrangements, the rest of us took the cars and 
arrived at the Falls about 11 o'clock. 

The road thither presents a continuation of the same noble forest 
of " first growth," but often broken by clearings. Our European 
friends were much struck by the contrast with the region we had 
left only yesterday. A large proportion of the trees were elms, not 
the plume-like spreading elms of our avenues, but a straight, un- 
broken, scarcely tapering trunk of sixty feet height, then abruptly 
expanding with sturdy limbs at right angles into a round head. 

In the afternoon we crossed to the Canada side. The museum 
here contains an interesting collection of the birds and fishes of 
the neighborhood. A camera-obscura, the field of which is some 
twenty feet in diameter, placed on the edge of the cliff, gives exten- 
sive views of the Falls. I was struck with the disproportionally 
high tone of the sky in the landscapes it presented. The effect was 
something like the glow that comes on after sunset. 

In the evening we assembled in a hall leading to our lodgings at 
the Cataract Hotel, (in that part of the building which overlooks the 
Rapids,) and Prof. Agassiz, having displayed his portable black- 
board, (consisting of a piece of painted linen on a roller,) gave 
us the following sketch of the region passed over since his last lec- 
ture : — 

" East of Lake Ontario we have granitic formations, which were doubtless 
islands in the ancient time, on whose shores the later formations accumulated, 
by deposition from the water, in successive beds, the later covering the more 
ancient, except where these had in the meanwhile been elevated from the 
primeval ocean along the shores of the high land already dry. Thus the 



NARRATIVE. 13 

older deposits form strips around the granitic regions ; tlie beds of sedimen- 
tary rock becoming continually narrower with the rise of the continent and 
the consequent contraction of the ocean. From this time there were three 
basins, viz., the coal basin of Pennsylvania, that of the West, and that of 
Michigan. It is evident that the north-east region was the earliest dry ; to 
the westward all the formations are more recent. 

" Wherever the water escaped towards the north-east, we have waterfalls 
over precipices ; for instance, here at Niagara. Where depressions have 
been formed in soft rocks between harder ones, we have valleys, as that of 
the Mohawk. 

"It is a remarkable fact, that the leading changes in the geological 
features of North America take place in a north and south direction. Thus 
the fissures formino; the beds of the rivers, as those of the Connecticut, the 
Hudson, the Mississippi, and the rivers of Maine. In the Old World, on 
the contrary, most formations are parallel to the Equator, as the Alps, the 
Atlas, and the Himalayas. Only two mountain chains run north and south, 
the Ural, and the Scandinavian mountains, which are northern in their char- 
acter. The longitudinal direction of fissures in this country is well shown 
by the New York State Survey. The lakes of Western New York lie north 
and south. So also Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. These longitudinal 
fissures are sometimes traversed by others at right angles, as in the instances 
of Lake Superior and Lake Erie. These fissures must have been formed 
by the upheaval of the continent, the layers of already solidified rock being 
lifted up or depressed. Elvers must have existed already in those early 
ages, as is shown for instance in the ancient channel of the Niagara, (above 
the Whirlpool,) which is filled with drift not found in the present channel. 

" All the formations before spoken of are more ancient than the coal, yet 
many of them consist of soft clay. The hardness of rock is thus no proof or 
criterion of its age. These soft slates are nowhere more developed than in 
New York, and nowhere have they been more carefully examined and des- 
cribed. These details of facts are to be looked upon in the same light as 
a mere list of dates or occurrences in history. But geology aims at a full 
illustration of all these details. 

" Passing to the vegetable kingdom : — As soon as we left the metamor- 
phic rocks of Massachusetts, vegetation became much richer, because of the 
limestone and marl deposits. It is remarkable how limestone favors not 
only vegetable, but also animal life. In Switzerland, where the country is 
divided between the limestone and marl region of the Jura, the sandstone of 
the plain, and the granitic formations of the Alps, the cattle of the latter 
region are not more than one-third of the size of those of the former. 



14 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

" Among the plants peculiar to this country, are many in whose ana- 
logues in Europe many interesting chemical products have been traced. 
Very little has been done here in organic chemistry, and it is a matter which 
might well occupy one's lifetime, to ascertain the chemical relations of 
analogous plants of the two countries, (for instance, Angelica, wal- 
nut, &c.) Tracing the forest vegetation, we have seen lately very few 
pines, but principally maples, elms, and ashes ; and here at Niagara, almost 
exclusively elm, beech, hickory, ash, and arbor-vitae, which is very rare in 
Massachusetts." 

June \'^tli. — We met a2:ain this mornino; in the hall, where Prof. 
Agasslz had prepared diagrams illustrating the geology of Niagara, 
which he explained as follows : — 

" The surface of the soil, both on the Canadian and on the American side, is 
covered with gravel, containing fossils in great numbers, and stones of all sizes, 
from that of a hen's egg to large bowlders. This stratum is now disunited by 
the action of the river, but was originally continuous, as is shown by the 
fossils, and by the fact that on the intermediate islands, where it has escaped 
the action of the water, it is still present. The fossils form a bed extending 
horizontally to the river bluffs, but not beyond ; they occur in great num- 
bers, covering the surface of the soil everywhere, and contributing to the 
great luxuriance of the vegetation. These fossil shells, doubtless, inhabited 
the river in former times, when its bed was the mass of gravel, &c., on which 
they now rest, the bluffs being at that time its banks. They are of species 
now living in the river, of the genera Unio, Cyclas, Melania, Paludina, and 
Planorhis. Hence we conclude that this bed was formed when the river 
filled the whole valley, at which time it had a breadth varying from one to 
seven miles, and averaging three or four. Probably at that time it resem- 
bled the present Rapids above Goat Island. Afterwards, from the accelera- 
tion of the current, owing probably to the opening of fissures which lowered 
the level of Lake Erie, the two present channels were cut down to the rock, 
and the river reduced to its present level." 

Afterwards we went over to Goat Island, and blessed once more 
the good sense that has kept this place undisturbed. The decaying 
wood and fungi of the damp woods here afforded an abundance of 
specimens to our entomologists. The variety of trees and shrubs on 
these islands is remarkable. On the little islet (only a few feet 
m extent,) connected by a foot-bridge with the toll-house, Prof. 



NARRATIVE. 15 

Agassiz pointed out seven different kinds of trees, viz., arbor 
vitce, red cedar, hemlock, bass-wood, cliestnut-oak, white pine, and 
maple. The Professor also pointed out the shell-bed of which he had 
spoken. The shells are very numerous, as may be readily seen in 
the crumbling bank on the outer side of the island. At the upper 
end of the island, vast numbers of delicate ephemera-hke insects, 
with long filaments, were fluttering about, particularly under the 
trees. 

Some of us had never seen the Falls, and none of us at this season 
of the year, when the mass of water is greatest. Coming at length 
in sight of them, we were struck with the thickness of the sheet at 
the pitch of the English Fall, particularly in that part of it between 
the apex of the Horseshoe and the middle of the cataract on the 
Canadian side.* It bends over in a polished, unbroken mass, as of 
green glass over white. Some one said the average depth of water 
at that point was about fourteen feet. Other remarkable features are, 
the distance to which the water is projected, the rocket-like bursts of 
spray from the falling sheet, and the sudden spoutmg up of the mist 
at intervals from below, as if shot from a cannon. These sheets of 
mist rise high above the Fall, and move slowly down the river in 
perpendicular columns, like a procession of ghosts. On the whole, 
the difference of season is in favor of that when the river is lowest, 
the features of the scene, particularly the Rapids outside of Goat 
Island, being rather obscured than improved by a greater depth of 
water. 

After tea, the following remarks on what we had seen were made 
by Prof. Agassiz : — 

" If we follow the chasm cut by the Niagara River, down to Lake Ontario, 
we have a succession of strata coming to the surface, of various character 
and formation. These strata dip S.W. or towards the Falls, so that in their 
progress to Iheir present position, the Falls have had a bed of very 
various consistency. Some of these strata, as the shales and the Med- 
ina sandstone, are very soft, and when they formed the edge of the Fall, it 
probably had the character of rapids. But wherever it comes to an edge of 
hard rock, with softer beds below, the softer beds, crumbling away, leave a 

* The " Horseshoe " at present is a triangle, but it has been a nearly regular semi- 
circle within the recollection of persons now living. 



16 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

shelf projecting above, and tlien the fall is perpencticular. Such is the case 
at present ; the hard Niagara limestone overhangs in tables the soft shales 
underneath, which at last are worn away to such an extent as to undermine 
the superincumbent rocks. Such was also the case at Queenston, where the 
Clinton group formed the edge, with the Medina sandstone below. This 
process has continued from the time when the Niagara fell directly into Lake 
Ontario, to the present time, and will continue so long as there are soft beds 
underneath hard ones. But from the inclination of the strata, this will not 
always be the case. A time will come when the rock below will also be 
hard. Then, probably, the Falls will be nearly stationary, and may lose 
much of their beauty, from the wearing away of the edge, rendering it an 
inclined plane. I do not think the waters of Lake Erie will ever fall into 
Lake Ontario without any intermediate cascade. The Niagara shales are so 
extensive that possibly at some future time the river below the cascade may 
be enlarged into a lake, and thus the force of the falling water diminished. 
But the whole process is so slow, that no accurate calculations can be made. 
The Falls were probably larger and stationary for a longer time, at the 
" AVhirlpool " than anywhere else. At that point there was no division of 
the cataract, but at the " Devil's Hole" there are indications of a lateral 
fall, probably similar to what is now called the American Fall. At the 
Whirlpool, the rocks are still united beneath the water, showing that they 
were once continuous above its surface also."* 

Afterwards, some of us went to bathe by moonlight in the 
" Hermit's Fall," a little cascade eight or ten feet in height, 
between Goat Island and the islet at its upper end. It is so 
called from a crazy Englishman who lived for some time in a hut on 
the other side of the island, and w^as finally drowned in bathing at 
this place. There is, however, little danger, as the water is shallow, 
and just below the pool a large log extends across the stream, which is 
only some twenty feet wide. The "Hermit" was probably tired 
of his own society at last, as he had been already of other people's, 
and took this method of getting rid of it. The place', indeed, one 
could conceive might be dangerously attractive to one tired of life. 
It is so shaded and shut off by the overhanging trees of the island, 
that one might fancy it a mountain stream a hundred miles from any 

* The data on which these and the previous remarks on the geology of the Falls are 
founded, are derived from Prof. James Hall's investigations in the New York State 
Suivey. A. 



NARRATIVE. 17 

human habitation. The httle cascade, near at hand, drowns the 
roar of the great one, and though bj day it cannot boast of any 
great privacy, yet at night very few even of the most romantic 
moonlight strollers get so far as this. 

The power of the water was greater than I expected, and difficult 
to bear up against, even in a sitting posture. It was not a simple 
pressure, but a muscular force, like a kneading or shampooing by 
huge hands. We crawled in at the side of the Fall, and found a 
hollow underneath the shelving edge, large enough for several to sit 
at once, quite free from the water, which shoots over like a miniature 
of the great cascade below. With some difficulty, from the pounding 
of the falling water, we penetrated through the sheet in front, and 
came out into the pool, the bottom of which is smooth rock. Close to 
the surface there was a strong current of air down the stream, not 
perceptible at the height of two feet. 

Afterwards, in walking round the island, we saw on the cloud of 
mist over the English Fall, a lunar rainbow, glimmering with a 
pale, phosphorescent, unearthly light, and showing prismatic colors, 
but not quite joined at the top. Some of the party afterwards saw 
it complete. 

Jiune l^th. — Took an accommodation car on the Lockport Railroad 
as far as the Suspension Bridge, (about a mile below the Falls,) of 
which the piers were finished and a rope stretched across, bearing 
suspended a basket, in which some adventure-loving person was being 
hauled across. From the bridge we walked along the bank through 
the woods to the Whirlpool. The river, when thus seen from above, 
is of such a dark and solid green, that it is difficult to persuade one's 
self that it is not occasioned by some colored matter suspended in 
the water. At intervals we got glimpses of the Fall, between the 
high perpendicular banks enclosing it as in a frame. The slow, 
heavy plunge of the water was distinguishable to the eye even at 
this distance, but the roar was hardly audible. 

Rattlesnakes are found among the rocks about these cliffs, and one 
had been taken alive the day before, in the path leading down to the 
Whirlpool. There is said to be a mound of their bones in the neigh- 
borhood, erected in token of full revenge by some Indians whose 
chief had been killed by a rattlesnake's bite. 



18 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Returning to the Suspension Bridge, we went on board the little 
steamer, " Maid of the Mist," which runs up to the foot of the 
Falls. I confess I was doubtful as to the advantages to be gained 
bj any one who had crossed the ferry so often as I had, but I was 
old traveller enough to know that one oftener repents of not going 
than of going, and went accordingly, instead of returning by the 
cars with the more skeptical of the party. The result showed the 
soundness of the principle. Many things are to be learned by such 
close proximity, (for the boat, true to her name, runs actually into 
the mist at the foot of the Fall,) and may be studied more conveni- 
ently in the steamer, with a chance to dodge any extraordinary 
shower of spray, than in an open skiff. I saw plainly here, what I 
had not been able to satisfy myself of before, that the catenary curves 
in high waterfalls, insisted upon by the " Oxford Graduate,"* are 
fully exemplified in the greatest cascade of the world. 

At half-past two P. M. we took the cars for Buffalo, and as the 
steamer was not to start until seven, we had some time on our 
hands after our arrival there, which we spent in making some last 
purchases, and in seeing the place. 

The number of Germans here- is a prominent feature. At the 
Post-office there is a separate delivery for " Deutsche Briefe." 
Another feature, striking to a New Englander, though common to 
all the towns in New York, (which justify themselves probably by 
the example of their great city,) is the number of pigs running at 
large in the streets. When ^ at length we went on board the 
" Globe," we found everything in confusion. Bye and bye, how- 
ever, the confusion subsided ; even the escape-pipe abated its 
vehemence by degrees, and at last became silent, and still there 
seemed to be no movement towards starting. But in proportion as 
the boat became quiet, the passengers became noisy for departure, 
and at last, after much expostulation, and finally the threat of leaving 
altogether, at half past ten we got under weigh. 

June 20th. — Weather pleasant, wind S.S.W., strong. The water 
green, but less so than at Niagara. This forenoon we took possess- 
ion of a little cabin in the after part of the vessel, to listen to the 

• Modem Painters, (Am. Ed.,) I., 363. 



NARRATIVE. 19 

following account from the Professor, of the forest trees about 
Niagara, illustrated by specimens gathered the day before on the 
spot : — 

"1. Ooniferce, (pine family,) remarkable for the apparently whorled 
arrangement of their branches, and for their evergreen leaves ; in most cases 
they form hard cones, but one has soft, berry-like fruit. The seeds are 
naked, winged, resting on the scales. The leaves are peculiar, the nerves 
not being spread, but often gathered into compact bundles. The ConifercB 
existed at a very early geological epoch. This was the first family that 
became numerous after the ferns. Their remains are easily recognized 
under the microscope by the circular disks on their wood-cells. 

" 2. Sterile flowers grouped together, in spike-like branches, forming 
catkins ; fertile flowers surrounded by a cup. They all belong to temperate 
chmates. Gen. Quercus (oak,) characterized by their fruit, and by the 
fact that the female flowers are scattered, and the stameniferous_ flowers 
form bunches. There are more than forty species in the United States. 
Gen. Castanea, (chestnut,) allied to the oaks, but the fruit surrounded 
entirely by the cup (burr). There are two species in the United States. 
Gen. OsTRYA, (hop-hornbeam,) only one species. Gen. Carpinus, (horn- 
beam,) fruit supported by flat leaf. May be distinguished from Ostrya 
by the more prominent ribs, and less deeply marked serratures of the leaves. 
"3. Amentacece ; both kinds of flowers in catkins. Gen. Betula, 
(birch,) distinguished by the shape of its catkins, which are long and cyl- 
indrical, and its winged fruit. Gen. Populus, (poplar,) seeds in a pod, 
very minute, and surrounded by down. P. tremuloides (American aspen,) 
like the other species, has the leaf-stalk very much compressed, hence the 
tremulous motion of the leaf. 

" 4. Juglandeoe, fruit with an external soft husk, the nut separating into 
two halves. There are two genera of this family in the United States : 
JuGLANS. All have compound leaves, that is, each leaf is divided into 
leaflets. Two species, black walnut and butternut, the latter distinguished 
by the silkiness and whitish color of the underside of the leaf. Carya, 
the nut does not divide so well as in Juglans, but the husk is divided and 
falls off in pieces, which is not the case in Juglans. At Oeningen, in Swit- 
zerland, are found fossil hickories. The trees of the tertiary epoch of 
Europe correspond to the species existing at present in this country. 

" 5. Oleacece, (the ash family,) leaves like those of hickory, but ihQ large 
lateral nerves do not run to the points of the serratures, as in the hickories. 
Fruit in bunches, with dry capsules. Flower in the ash, without corolla. 



20 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

" 6. Hamamelidce, (witch liazel,) named probably from its flowering in 
the fall. Fruit in four little nuts. No species of this family in Europe. 

" 7. TiliacecB, leaves unsymmetrical. Tilia americana, (bass-wood,) 
leaves smooth below. 

" 8. Acerinece, Gen, Acer, (maple,) leaves in three main lobes, sub- 
divided into five. 

" 9. Ampelidce, (the grape family,) petals dividing below sooner than at 
the. apes. Great variety of species in America, but not suitable for making 
wine. Three species on Goat Island." 

The south shore of Lake Erie is flat and monotonous ; red, crumb- 
ling banks, surmounted by a forest broken only by an occasional 
log-house. At one time high land visible on the horizon, being a 
spur of the Alleghanies. 

In spite of all glorification on the score of the " Great Lakes," 
it must be confessed that the Lower Lakes at least are only geo- 
graphically or economically great. Any one accustomed to the sight 
of the ocean has to keep in mind the square miles of extent, 
to preserve his- respect for them. Their waves, though dangerous 
enough to navigators, have not sufficient swing to carve out a rocky 
shore for themselves, or to tumble any rollers along the beach, and 
thus the line where land and water meet, in which, as has been 
well said, the interest of a sea-view centres, is as tame as the edge 
of a duck-pond. Much of this character is doubtless owing to 
the flat prairie country by which they are mostly surrounded. 

In the afternoon heavy clouds rolled up from the N.W., and a 
squall was evidently approaching. At this time we saw a steamer 
in the distance outside of us, with her flag union down. On reach- 
ing her we found she had broken her crank. After some clumsy 
manoeuvring we got alongside, and her captain persuaded the owner 
of our boat, who was on board, to " accommodate " him by towing 
him into Cleveland. This kind turn would delay us many hours, and 
was by no means necessary for the safety of the boat, since there 
were other ports under the lee. Nevertheless, our owner (although, 
as we learned, he was to be paid nothing for the trouble,) agreed, 
and took them in tow. But shortly after, the squall coming on, it 
was found that our machinery wovild not stand the additional strain, 
and she Avas accordingly cast off to shift for herself. We arrived at 



NARRATIVE. 21 

Cleveland at half past ten P. M., and spent there some hours. It Is 
a thrivmg town, 'and a regular stopping place for steamers, but like 
almost all the towns on this lake, is without a natural harbor, the 
only shelter to vessels being a long pier stretching into the Lake. 

June 21st. — Weather fine and warm, with smooth water. Arrived 
at Detroit at half past eleven, and left at three P. M. • Near 
the entrance of Lake St. Clair we were surrounded by numbers of 
black terns, (^Sterna nigra,^ which, at a moderate distance, were 
distinguishable from the swallows by Avhich they were accompanied, 
only by their superior size. Numbers of slender gauze-win^^ed in- 
sects, (Upkemera, Fhrt/ganea,} with long antennse, and some with two 
long filaments projecting behind like the tail feathers of the Tropic 
bird about the boat, and on the water. In the St. Clair straits 
there were a few ducks, even at this season, though nothing like the 
vast flocks to be seen here a little later in the season. 

We were sounding constantly through these straits, having on an 
average about three feet below the keel in the channel, our boat 
drawing seven feet. The shores are low, marshy and aguish, with 
woods at a distance, and scattered log-houses. ,This remarkable 
extent of mud-flats, (some twenty miles across,) is covered with 
only a foot or two of water in most parts, and even the channel is so 
shallow that the larger boats have to discharge a part of their cargo 
into lighters while passing it, and are often delayed here many hours. 
Even our boat continually touched, as was evident from the clouds 
of mud she stirred up. To make and maintain a proper channel for 
such a distance, is an undertaking much called for, but not to be 
expected of single States, nor is there any one State principally 
interested in it. One would hope, therefore, that the General Gov- 
ernment may before long do something about it. 

The water over these fiats is still as green as that of Lake Erie, 
and not more turbid. About 10 P. M. we put in to wood, and re- 
mained'until 7 A. M., taking in sixty-four cords of wood. 

June 22d. — We entered Lake Huron about breakfast time ; the 
weather calm, and what the sailors call " greasy," the water darker 
than in Lake Erie, partly owing, no doubt, to the greater depth of 
water, and partly to the cloudy sky. The dark sullen water, and 
the unbroken line of forest, retreating on either hand as we issued 



22 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

from the straits, gave a kind of grim majesty to this lake, by con- 
trast to those we had left. Many sea-gulls about. Land in sight 
on the left all day, except in crossing Saginaw Bay. 

On entering Lake Huron, we began to feel that we were getting 
into another region. Canoes of Indians about ; the weather cool 
morning and evening, and the vegetation northerly, the pine family 
having a decided preponderance in the landscape. We might be 
said to have left the summer behind at the St. Clair, for thence- 
forth there was hardly a day during some part of which a fire was 
not necessary for comfort. 

Just before sunset, when the sun was three or four degrees high, 
we noticed in the opposite quarter of the heavens, rays of light con- 
verging towards a point apparently as much below the horizon, as 
the sun was above. It had the appearance of a cloudy sunrise. 
We afterwards saw the same thing in the St. Mary's River ; and 
it may be remarked, in both cases before rain.* 

June, 23cZ. — Arrived at Mackinaw early in the morning, and land- 
ed on the wharf in a shower. We had been about eighty hours on 
the way from Buffalo, a distance of 663 miles, and we were vexed 
to hear that the weekly steamer for the Sault had left the evening 
before, and that if we had taken the other boat, which started punc- 
tually a couple of hours before us, we should have been in time. 

We landed on the little wooden wharf in face of a row of shabby 
cabins and stores, with " Indian curiosities " posted up in large 
letters to attract the steamboat passengers during the brief stop for 
fish. Over their roofs appeared the whitewashed buildings of the 
Fort stretching along the ridge. The inhabitants of the place, look- 
ing down upon us from all sides, as from the lower benches of a 
theatre, soon perceived that we had not departed with the steamer, 
and we were soon plied with invitations to the two principal lodging- 
houses. From previous experience, I advised the " Mission House," 
and thither we went. 

On the beach some Indians were leisurely hauling up their canoes, 
or engaged upon their nets, regardless of the rain. The Professor 
was soon in the midst of them, and bought white-fish and large pike, 

* See a notice of a similar phenomenon by Bory St. Vincent, in Goethe's Farben- 
lehre : [Entoptische Farben, cap. XXXI.] 



NARRATIVE. 23 

■which had been taken with nets or lines set the night before. An 
excellent breakfast (at which white-fish figured,) and comfortable 
rooms, showed that the character of the " Mission House " was still 
kept up. 

It continued to shower at intervals during the day, but this 
did not prevent ift from seeing the Natural Bridge, Avith its re- 
gular arch, ninety feet high, rising on the border of the island, 
the huge conical rock called the " Sugar Loaf," the Fort, &c. I 
do not know whether any of the party visited the cave where Alex- 
ander Henry was concealed by his Indian friend during the massacre 
of the English — as I did on a former occasion, when, bye the bye, I 
found a fragment of a human skull among the rubbish on the floor of 
the cave, attesting the correctness of that part of Henry's narrative. 

The wet weather was not unfavorable to vegetation, which is luxu- 
riant on the island, though the trees, (maple and beech,) are of 
small size, this latitude being nearly the northernmost limit of the 
latter. The flowers were beautiful ; the twin-flower, (^Linnma hor- 
ealis,^ so fine that I thought it must be another new species ; then 
the beautiful yellow ladies' slipper, Lonicera, and Cynoglossum. 

The island is of a roundish form, two or three miles in diameter. 
On the N.E. the crumbly lime-cliff rises abruptly from the water 
to the height of a hundred feet or more ; but on the south there 
is a sloping curve of varying width between the bluff and the beach. 

The village lies on this slope, a single street of straggling log- 
cabins and ill-conditioned frame houses, parallel with the beach, and 
some of a better class standing back among gardens at the foot of 
the bluff. On the edge of the bluff, which rises abruptly from the 
slope at the distance of some three hundred yards from the Lake, 
stands the Fort, a miniature Ehrenbreitstein, with a covered way 
leading down the face of the bluff. 

We were disappointed at finding only three or four lodges of 
Indians here. In August and September (the time for distributing 
the " presents,") there are generally several hundreds of them on 
the island. 

Notwithstanding the rain, the Professor, intent on his favorite 
science, occupied the morning with a fishing excursion, in which 
he was accompanied by several of the party, most of them pro- 



24 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

tected by water-proof garments, while he, regardless of wet and 
cold, sat soaking in the canoe, enraptured by the variety of the 
scaly tribe, described and undescribed, hauled in by their combined 
efforts. Not content with this, he as usual interested and engaged 
various inhabitants of the place to supply him with a complete set 
of the fishes found here. * 

"With a view of indoctrinating those of us who were altogether 
new to ichthyology with some general views on the subject, he com- 
menced in the afternoon, scalpel in hand, and a board well covered 
with fishes little and big before him, a discussion of their classifica- 
tion : 

"These fishes present examples of all the four great divisions of the 
class. This pike, (^Lucioperca americana,^ belongs to those having 
rough scales and spinous fins. The rays of the first dorsal, and the an- 
terior ones of the ventrals and the anal are simple and spinous ; the other 
rays are divided at the extremity, and softer. The scales are rough and 
remarkably serrate. These are the Ctenoids. They have five sorts of 
fins, viz : the dorsal, caudal and anal, which are placed vertically in the 
median line, and can be raised or depressed, and the ventral and anal, 
which are in pairs. In the Ctenoids the ventrals are placed immediately 
below the pectorals, though fishes having this arrangement of fins do not all 
belong to this division. There are but two families of Ctenoids found in 
fresh water : the Percoids and the Cottoids ; the former are characterized 
by having teeth on the palatal and intermaxillary bones, but none on the 
maxillary. Also by a serrate preoperculum and by the spines on the oper- 
culum. Of this family are tlie genera Perca, Lahrax, Pomotis, Centrar- 
chus, &c. The fish before us belongs to the genus Lucioperca. They 
have a wide mouth and large conical teeth, like the pickerels, and two dorsals. 
There are two species in Europe and two in the United States. This is L. 
americana; its color is a greenish brown above, with whitish below, and 
golden stripes on the sides. On opening the fish we find the heart very far 
in front, between the gills, and consisting of a triangular ventricle, a loose 
hanging auricle, and a bulbous expansion of the aorta. All the Percoids 
have three coecal appendices from the pyloric extremity of the stomach. 
These probably take the place of a pancreas. Below is the air-bladder, 
which is a rudimentary lung. Above this are the ovaries, which extend from 
one extremity of the abdomen to the other. Behind is the kidney, extend- 
ing along the spine. 



NARRATIVE. 25 

This trout belongs to the Cycloids. In this division there are only 
two families which have spinous rays in their fins, (the tautog and the 
mackerel.) We have before us specimens of two families of Cycloids. 

1. SalmonidcB. Distinguished by having the intermaxillary and upper 
maxillary in one row, which seems to me to indicate the highest rank 
in the class of fishes. They all have a second dorsal, of an adipose struc- 
ture. The anterior dorsal and the ventrals are in the middle of the body. 
Genus Salmo : characterized by teeth on every bone of the mouth and on 
the tongue. There is but one genus in the class of fishes that has teeth on 
more bones than the salmon. In no genus are the species more difficult to 
distinguish. Sixteen species have been described as belonging to Europe, 
which I have been obliged to reduce to seven. The same species presents 
great variety of appearance, owing to difference of sex, of season, food, color 
of the water in which they live, &c. In this country I have examined two 
species, the brook trout, (>S'. fontmalis,) the spawning male of which has 
been improperly separated as S. erTjthrogaster ; and the present species, the 
Mackinaw trout, *S'. amethystus of Mitehill. Dekay has described a variety 
of this species, as S. affinis. In this species the appendices pylorici before 
spoken of are very numerous. The small intestine arises from the lower 
extremity of the stomach, and curves only twice throughout its length. The 
gall-bladder is very large : the liver forms one flat mass ; the ovaries and 
kidney extend along the whole spine. All this family spawn in the autumn. 

"(2.) Qyprinidce. Like the salmons they have the ventral and dorsal fins 
in the middle of the body, but no adipose dorsal. Brancbiostegal rays, 
three. Upper maxillary forming another arch behind the intermaxillary. 
Teeth only on the pharyngeal bone behind the gills, at the entrance of the 
oesophagus. No pyloric appendices. Intestine long and thin, as in all her- 
bivorous fishes. Air-bladder transversely divided into two lobes, communi- 
cating by a tube with the intestinal canal. 

" This family is the most difficult one among all fishes. As yet there is 
no satisfactory principle of classification for them. I have studied them so 
attentively that I can distinguish the European species by a single scale ; 
but this not from any definite character, but rather by a kind of instinct. 
Prof. Valenciennes, a most learned ichthyologist, has lately published a vol- 
ume on this family, in which he distinguishes so many species, and on such 
minute characters, that I think it now almost impossible to determine the 
species, until all are well figured. 

" Here are specimens of two genera : (a) Leuciscus, with thin lips ; only 
one species here, an undescribed one characterized by a brownish stripe above 
the lateral line, (b) Catostomus, with very thick lips and prominent snout." 
3 



26 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

June 24^^. — Rather than wait here a week for the next steamer, 
we engaged a Mackinaw boat and some Canadians to take us to the 
Sault. These boats are a cross between a dory and a mud-scow, 
having something of the shape of the former and something of the 
clumsiness of the latter. Our craft was to be ready early in the 
morning, but it was only by dint of scolding that we finally got oflf 
at 10 o'clock. A very light breeze from the southward made suf- 
ficient excuse to our four lazy oarsmen and lazy skipper for spreading 
a great square sail and sprit-sail, and lying on their oars. Unless it 
was dead calm, not a stroke would they row. 

At about 1 o'clock, Mackinaw still plainly visible at a very moder- 
ate distance to the southward, we stopped to lunch at ^Goose Island, 
a narrow ridge of rough, angular pebbles, about half a mile long, 
covered with thick bushes and stunted trees, among which the prin- 
cipal were arbor-vitae and various species of cornus. It passed 
through my mind whether this could be the He aux Outardes, where 
Henry parted with his Indian friend. It is difficult to say what 
bird of this region could have reminded the French colonists of a 
bustard. 

Getting off again we continued at rather a better rate (the wind 
being now fortunately ahead) until twilight, when our steersman 
said it was time to look out for a camp, and proposed landing us on 
a little island near the western shore of the strait. The more ardent 
naturalists of the party, however, seeing a sand-beach, (capital 
hunting-ground for Coleoptera.) backed by a grassy bank among 
the trees, were anxious to land there, but this was promptly 
opposed by the whole of our native ship's-company, who urged 
that we should be devoured by " les moucheB." This suggestion 
seeming reasonable, it was arranged that those who wished it 
should be landed on the beach, while the rest proceeded to encamp 
and get supper ready on the island. This was done ; but hardly had 
we disembarked and lighted a fire, when cries were heard from the 
main land, and on looking round we saw our friends, some with their 
heads bound up in handkerchiefs, others beating the air with branches 
of trees; all vociferating to us to "Send the boat!" and on the 
whole, manifesting the most unmistakable symptoms of musquitoes, 
which were abundantly confirmed when they joined us. 



NARRATIVE. 27 

Our island was a mass of large irregular stones, about a quarter of 
a mile long, with a narrow ridge covered with long grass and arbor-vi- 
taes, many of them dead, and (particularly on the west,) hung over 
with pendant lichen (^Usnea). Here, (after some trouble from not 
having brought tent-poles, which had now to be cut,) Ave pitched four 
tents, for only two of which was there any room on the grass, the 
others looking out for the smallest stones. However supper and 
three blazing fires soon settled all down into a comfortable state, and 
before long the white tents and th,e ghost-like trees with their hoary 
drapery were the only upiight objects to reflect the light of the fires, 
and the long melancholy notes of some neighboring loons (a sign of 
bad weather, they say,) the only sounds to be heard. As my lot 
was cast upon the stones, I took the precaution of thatching them 
with some armfuls of usnea, which with a couple of blankets made 
aji excellent bed. 

June 25th. — Our island was only about thirty miles from Macki- 
naw, and so, as it behoved us, we were off by half past four o'clock this 
morning, with the wind aft, to try to make up for lost time. Our 
course lay along the American shore of the strait, amid innumerable 
islands and islets, generally low and wooded with venerable lichenous 
arbor-vitjBS. The shore also was uniformly low, and covered with a 
forest which reminded me of the lower summits of the White 
Mountains. 

We stopped to breakfast just beyond the light-house at the De- 
tour, at the log-house of some lime-burners, a tavern moreover, 
rejoicing in the name of "the saloon," where we experimented 
upon tea with maple-sugar, and bread of the place, somewhat like 
sweetened plaster-of Paris. Drummond Island, interesting from its 
fossils, we were obliged to pass without stopping. 

By noon the wind had got so high that we thought prudent to 
make a lee under a point on St. Joseph's Island. As we landed, a 
rather rough-looking, unshaven personage in shirt-sleeves walked up 
and invited us to his house, which was close at hand. We found 
his walls lined with books ; Shakspeare, Scott, Hemans, &c., 
caught my eye as I passed near the shelves, forming a puzzling con- 
trast with the rude appearance of the dwelling. A very few 
moments sufficed to show a similar contrast in our host himself. He 



28 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

knew Prof. Agassiz by reputation, had read the reports of his lectures 
in the newspapers, and evinced a warm interest in the objects of our 
excursion. Wherf he found out who the Professor was, he produced 
a specimen in spirits of the rare gar-pike of Lake Huron, and insisted 
upon his accepting it, and afterwards sent him various valuable spec- 
imens. His conversation, eager and discursive, running over Politics, 
Science and Literature, was that of an intelligent and well-read 
man, who kept up, by books and newspapers, an acquaintance with 
the leading topics of the day, but seldom had an opportunity of 
discussing them with persons similarly interested. He turned out to 
be an ex-Major in the British army, and he showed us a portrait of 
himself in full regimentals, remarking with a smile that he had once 
been noted as the best-dressed man of his regiment. Whilst in the 
service he had travelled over Europe, seen what was best worth 
seeing, and become acquainted with the principal modern languages, 
particularly Italian, which he read here in the wilderness with delight. 
In company with a friend he had purchased the entire island of St. 
Joseph's and devoted himself to farming, bringing up his children to 
support themselves by the sweat of their brow. He said it would be 
time enough to give them a literary or professional education when 
they manifested a disposition for it, for he did not approve of the 
indiscriminate training of all for Avhat comparatively few have 
any real talent for. He was preparing them, he said, to be 
American citizens, for he thought the Canadas would form a part 
of the United States within three years at farthest ; and though he for 
his part was a loyal subject of her Majesty, and would fight to protect 
her dominions if it came to that — yet he had no objections to his 
children being republicans. 

After chatting several hours with the Major, and discussing an 
excellent white-fish which he placed before us, the wind having 
meantime moderated, we continued our course. St. Joseph's, 
according to the Major, forms a triangle, of which the two longest 
sides measure twelve and twenty miles. The climate he described 
as temperate, being influenced probably by the great mass of flowing 
water by which the island is surrounded. His custom was to work 
throughout the winter in his shirt sleeves ; he did not remember to 
have seen the thermometer lower than — 10° Fah., and that only for 
very short periods. The soil excellent, except near the shores. 



NARRATIVE. 29 

Passing the end of the island we saw two solitary chimneys, the 
remains of the fort that formerly stood here. Our course lay 
among small islands, reminding one of the little wooded islets of 
Lake George, with a brilliant background of sunset sky. We noticed 
the same appearance in the east, spoken of June 22nd. The twilight 
continuing late, we pushed on until about ten o'clock, when our men 
proposed to land on a small rocV island, but they being alarmed at 
a discovery (probably imaginary) of snakes among the rocks, and 
we for our part not finding room enough among the stones to pitch 
a tent, we continued our course to another island which bears the 
name of " Campement des matelots." Here it was voted too late to 
pitch tents, so we rolled ourselves in our blankets, some on shore 
and some in the boat, taking care to include our heads, for the mus- 
quitoes had roused themselves and were making active preparations 
to receive us. 

Jane 26th. — The musquitoes of the night before must have been 
merely those who occupied the spots where we lay down, for when in 
the morning, being awakened by sundry energetic exclamations in 
my neighborhood, I extricated my head from the blanket and looked 
about me, my first impression was wonder, at the swarms that sur- 
rounded the heads of my companions. Having fortunately a mus- 
quito-veil in my pocket I was soon a disinterested spectator of their 
torments. It was with some difficulty that the necessary arrange- 
ments for embarking (with no thought of breakfast) were completed, 
and it was more than an hour after we left the place before with all 
our exertions we could get the boat rid of them. 

Soon afterwards it began to rain. Our course lay up the boat-chan- 
nel, (twelve miles shorter than the main passage,) over mud-flats 
covered with only a few feet of water, the banks on either side flat 
and covered with a monotonous forest which in one place was burnt, 
and for miles a tedious succession of blackened trunks. We crowded 
together in the middle of the boat and covered ourselves as well as 
we could with tarpaulins and India rubber cloaks, the importance of 
which rose considerably in the general estimation. This muddy 
expanse of the river or strait, goes by the name of Mud Lake. It 
resembles Lake St. Clair on a smaller scale, being eight or ten miles 
wide. Here, as we were afterwards told, is found a great abundance 
and variety of fishes, and also the salamander which the Indians call 



30 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

the " walking fish" (^Menobranchus) , and which even to them is a 
great curiosity. At last we reached the Lower Rapids, where with 
all the exertion of our men we for some time made little progress. 
Soon a cabin or two made its appearance ; then we saw the paUsades 
of Fort Brady, and at noon arrived at the wharf, where even the 
rain did not prevent a considerable concourse of the idle population. 
Carts drove down into the water for our luggage, and at length our 
drenched state was relieved by the comfortable accommodations of 
the " St. Mary's Hotel." 



CHAPTER II. 

THE SAULT TO MICHIPICOTIN. 

Jane 21th. — ^^The Sault de St. Marie, on the American side, is a 
long straggling village, extending in all some two or three miles, 
if we reckon from the outposts of scattered log-huts. The main 
part of it, however, is concentrated on a street running from the 
Fort (which stands on a slight eminence over the river,) about a 
quarter of a mile along the water, with some back lanes leading up 
the gradual slope, rising perhaps half a mile from the river. Be- 
hind this again is an evergreen swamp, from which a rockj wooded 
bluflf rises somewhat abruptly to the height of a hundred feet or 
thereabouts. 

The population is so floating in its character that it is difficult to 
estimate ; some stated it at about three hundred on the average, 
consisting of half-breed voyageurs, miners waiting for employment, 
traders, and a few Indians. The chaplain at the Fort, however, esti- 
mated the number of inhabitants on both sides of the river at one 
thousand, of whom the majority belong to the American side. 

The most striking feature of the place is the number of dram- 
shops and bowling-alleys. Standing in front of one of the hotels I 
counted seven buildings where liquor was sold, besides the larger 
" stores," where this was only one article among others. The 
roar of bowling alleys and the click of billiard balls are heard 
from morning until late at night. The whole aspect is that of a 
western village on a fourth of July afternoon. Nobody seems to be 
at home, but all out on a spree, or going a fishing or bowling. 
There are no symptoms of agriculture or manufactures ; traders 
enough, but they are chatting at their doors or walking about from 
one shop to another. The wide platforms in front of the two large 
taverns are occupied by leisurely people, with their chairs tilted 



82 LAKE SUrEUTOR. 

baok, ami cii^ars in tlicir mouths. Nobody is busy bnt the bar- 
kocpiM-s, aiui in> one seems to know what ho is going to do next. 

Tho cause, probably, may bo in part the facihtics for smuggUng 
brandy iVoiu tlio Oana*lian side of the river, where it is clicapcr than 
on ours. I'ut the mischief lies chiefly in the unsettled state of things, 
the irrogidarity of employment and wages of labor. Money is not 
earned and spent from day to day, at home, but comes in lumps, 
and seasons of labor are followed by intervals of idleness. In short, 
the life of most of the inhabitants is essentially that of sailors, and 
brings accordingly the reckless character and the vices of that class. 

Sonu^thing also is due to the admixture of Indian blood, which has 
a fatal proneness to litjiior. Whilst we were here a number of Indians 
arrived with the sou of a chief, from Fort William, and after parad- 
ing* about the town with an American flag, speechifying and offering 
tJie pipe at all the grog-shops to beg for liquor, they dispersed and 
devoted themselves to drinking and playing at bowls. In the even- 
ing, two of us passing one of the bowling-alleys, saw in front of it, 
lying on a heap of shavings, a dark object which proved to be the 
chief's son. extended at full length, dead drunk, with several Indians 
endeavoring to get him home. The only sign of life he gave was a 
feeble uuitt^^ring in Indian, copiously intei-spersed with the English 
cui-se : another instance of the natui-alizatiou of John Bull's national 
imprecation in a foreign tongue. It is said the Indians have no 
oath in their owi language. Finding it impossible to make him 
walk, they squatted around him on their haunches and remained still 
for some time, apparently considering what to do. They were all 
perfectly sober and evidently greatly tixnibled at tlie state of their 
leader. At length, seeing us watching them, they came up and 
stood staring with their foces close to ours, but without speaking. 
We did not know exactly what they were at, but my companion by 
signs explained to them tliat diey sliould take up tlie drunken man 
by the logs and arms and carry him home. The idea struck them 
as a gvxtd one, for they immediately ** how. howod." set about it, 
and bore him off, one to each leg and arm. 

The river opposite the village is about a mile wide. Just above 
are tlie Upper Rapids, which give the name to the place, nearly 
three-fourths of a mile in length. There is no very great vertical 



i 
NARRATIVE. 83 

descent,* but the stream is much compressed and moreover very 
shallow, whence the great rapidity of the current at this spot. On 
the opposite bank is a thin, straggling village, and a large building 
belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. 

Our explorations of the neighborhood showed a great abun- 
dance of birds for the season. Prof Agassiz as usual had 
got all the fishes of the neighborhood about him ; among others 
several specimens of the gar-pike of Lake Huron, dried or in spirits, 
were presented to him by the various coadjutors whom he had 
interested in his favor. One of the most zealous of these was a fish- 
erman whom he had captivated by a distinction (at first stoutly and 
confidently combatted) between two closely-resembling species. In 
the evening he unrolled his blackboard and gave us the following 
account of them : 

" The gar-pike is the only living representative of a family of fishes 
which were the only ones existing during the deposition of the coal and other 
ancient deposits. At present it occurs only in the United States. The spe- 
cies of South Carolina was described by Linnaeus as Esox ossein, from a 
specimen sent to him by Dr. Garden. But it is not an Esox, though it has 
the peculiar backward dorsal of that genus. It differs in the arrangement 
of the teeth, which in Esox are seated on the palatal bones and the vomer, 
but in this genus, Lepidosteus, on the maxillary and all other bones which 
form the roof of the mouth. Moreover, the snout of the latter is much longer, 
the upper jaw bones being divided into ten or twelve distinct pieces. The 
intermaxillary is a small bone pierced with two holes for the admission of the 
two anterior projecting teeth of the lower jaw. In Esox the scales are 
rounded and composed of layers of homy substance, and overlap each other. 
In Lepidosteus the scales are square and overlap only very slightly. Each 
scale is composed of two substances ; first, a lower layer of bone, forming 
that part of the scale which is covered by the next ; second, enamel, like that 
of teeth. The scales are also hooked together; a groove in each, with a 
hook from the next fitting into it. Nothing of this kind occurs in other 
fishes of the present day. From these peculiarities I have named this 
family the Ganoids. Their vertebrae are not articulated together as those 

* According to Bayfield the total descent is twentj-two and one-half feet, but 
this probably includes both the Upper and Lower Rapids, as the whole difference of 
level between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, in a distance of forty miles, is only 
thirty-two feet. — Bouchette's British Dom. in N. America, L, 128. 



34 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

of other fishes, but unite by a ball-and-socket joint, as in reptiles. The 
scales also resemble in some particulars those of the Crocodilean reptiles, 
which immediately succeeded the fossil Ganoids, during whose epoch no 
reptiles existed. The embryology of the gar-pike, of which nothing as yet 
is known, would be an exceedingly interesting subject of investigation, since 
it is a general law that the embryo of the animals now living resembles the 
most ancient representatives of the same family. As probably connected 
with the preservation of this ancient family of fishes in this country, may 
be mentioned the fact that there was an extensive continent formed in North 
America at a time wlien all the rest of the earth was under water. Thus 
physical conditions have been more unaltered here than elsewhere. 

" The white-fish, ( Coregonus alhus,) has all the characters of the salmons, 
but no teeth. Among those I obtained to-day, is a new species, cha- 
racterized by a smaller mouth and more rounded jaw. To the same family 
belongs the lake "herring," which is no herring at all. This species has 
a projecting lower jaw and is undescribed. Here is a little fish which on 
hasty examination would seem to belong to the salmons, but has a project- 
ing upper jaw, and teeth on the intermaxillary, the upper maxillary 
forming another arch behind, without teeth. It has pectinated scales, like 
the perch. It is a new genus, allied to the family of Characini of 
Miiller. Fossil fishes of this family occur in great numbers in the creta- 
ceous period ; they are the first of the osseous fishes. This again is an in- 
stance similar to that of the Lepidosteus. The fish before us presents a 
curious combination of the characters of the Cycloids and Ctenoids. Here 
is a fish belonging to the CyprinidcB, but characterized by thick lips and a 
projecting upper jaw, whence I propose to call it Rhinichthys marmoratus. 

" This fish, one familiar with the fishes of Massachusetts would suppose to 
be a yellow perch, but it differs in wantiijg the tubercles on the head and oper- 
culum. It is Perca acuta Cuv. In the tertiary beds are found Percoids, 
with thirteen rays in the anterior dorsal ; this is also the case in the North 
American species. Again the variety of minnows found in this country 
has a parallel in the tertiary epoch." 

Jane 2^ih. — To-daj we made our first acquaintance with the 
genuine black jiy, a little insect resembling the common house-fly,> 
but darker on the back, with white spots on the legs, and two-thirds 
as large, being about two lines in length. They are much quicker in 
their motions, and much more persevering in their attacks, than the 
musquito, forcing their way into any crevice, for instance between 



NARRATIVE. 36 

the glove and the coat-sleeve. On the other hand, they are easily 
killed, as they stick to their prey like bull-dogs. 

June 29^/t. — Among the birds here, the most abundant is the 
white-throated sparrow, {Frincjilla pennsylvanica,') evidently breed- 
ing in great numbers in the swamp, for from the top of nearly 
every dead tree a male bird of this species was pouring forth 
his loud, striking note, something like the opening notes of the • 
European nightingale. The females were not to be seen, and were 
doubtless sitting. I found the nest and new-laid eggs of the song- 
sparrow, but could not discover those of the pennsylvanica. In the 
evening the Professor made the following remarks on the classifica- 
tion of birds ; 

"Animals have usually been classed merely according to the characters 
of the adult. In some instances, however, the importance of an examina- 
tion of the embryonic state also has already been acknowledged by natural- 
ists. For example, the barnacle, though in fact a crustacean, has in the 
adult state so much the appearance of a mollusk, that its true relation 
could hardly be recognized without the investigation of the embryo, which 
has all the aspect of the ordinary crustaceans. Hitherto embryology has 
been applied principally to the study of functions and organs, and not of 
classification, but I think it of the highest importance to the right under- 
standing of the affinities of all animals. 

" Birds are at present classed according to the form of the feet and bill. 
They form a very distinct group in the animal kingdom, all having wings, 
naked bills, and the same general form of feet. Yet no class has puzzled 
naturalists more. 

" Great weight has been given to the form of the toes. In one great 
group, {Palmipedes,') at least three of the toes are united by a web (four in the 
pelican and gannet,) throughout their whole length. In all other birds the 
toes are free, though in some the upper joints are united. 

" The form of the claws has also been considered of great importance. In 
birds of prey an agreement in the form of the claws is accompanied by a 
resemblance in the shape of the bill. In others, however, this is not the case ; 
thus the parrots, with crooked bills, and the woodpeckers with straight bills, 
have been united as climbers. Again, the passerines, classed together from 
the shape of the bill, agree very well in other respects ; but in the water- 
birds, species of very various characters have been brought together. 

" Taking all these things together, ornithologists have very generally agreed 



36 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

on four or five great divisions, though with some diiFerenees. Thus the 
waders, or those birds having the tarsus and a space above it naked, are 
put in one group by some, and by others made into two. The arrangement 
of the water birds now most generally admitted is : Palmipedes : with the 
feet united, except in one group, (the grebes, &c.) This division, I incline 
to think, is made on an insufl&cient consideration of tbeir true affinities. 
Grallatores : with three toes before, and one behind. The gallinaceous 
bird,'? form a very natural group, having the upper jaw arched, and feet like 
those of the grallatores, but with short and curved claws. The climbers have 
two toes before and two behind, of which one may generally be moved in 
either direction. Sometimes there is only a trace of this arrangement, in a 
closer union of two of the toes with each other than with the rest. The 
passerines have curved claws, or sometimes the hind-claw is straight ; three 
toes before and one behind. Some make three groups of them, bring- 
ing together those with flattened bills, (Inseetivora ;) those with conical 
bills, (Granivora,) and those with the upper mandible much stronger than 
the lower, (Omnivora.) Some again separate from these the swallows, 
pigeons, &c. 

" The toes in all birds have the same number of joints. The hind toe 
always consists of a single joint, the inner toe of two, the middle of three, 
and the outer of four. This arrangement is important in distinguishing the 
fossil tracks of birds from those of other animals, it being peculiar to them. 

" In examining birds within the egg, I have recently found some charac- 
ters to be less important than has been supposed. Thus the foot of the 
embryo robin is webbed, like that of the adult duck ; so also in the sparrow, 
swallow, summer-yellow-bird, and others, in all of which the adult has divided 
toes. The bill also is crooked and the point of the upper mandible projecting, 
as in the adult form of birds of prey. These latter, then, it would seem, 
should be brought down from the high place assigned to them on account 
of their voracious and rapacious habits, as if these would entitle an animal 
to a higher rank. For the resemblance of an adult animal to the embryo 
of another species, indicates a lower rank in the former.* Probably the true 
classification of birds would include various series, each embracing represen- 
tatives of all the various types now admitted as distinct." 

Mr. Ballcnden, of the Hudson's Bay Co., to whom the Professor 
had letters, paid him a visit to-day, and showed the most obliging 

* For further details see Prof. Agassiz's Lectures on Comparative Embryology, 
delivered at the Lowell Institute, January, 1819 ; published in the Daily Evening Truth 
eller, and afterwards in a pamphlet form by the same publishers. 



NARRATIVE. 37 

readiness to forward his plans, giving him letters to the gentlemen 
in charge of the various posts on the lake, which were highly ser- 
viceable to us. 

Dr. C. T. Jackson and the gentlemen engaged with him m the 
geological survey of the copper region of the south shore of Lake 
Superior, also arrived to-daj'-, and his assistant, Mr. Foster, gave the 
Prof, some valuable information, particularly concerning Neepigon 
Bay, which he had visited. 

Mr. McLeod, of the Sault, lent to the Professor Bayfield's large 
map of the Lake, (which we had not been able to procure,) enriched 
with manuscript notes, and gave him the results of various geologi- 
cal excursions on the lake. 

June dOtJi. — Rainy. Nevertheless, our preparations being made, 
we decided to start. It was necessary to convey our multifarious 
luggage to the upper end of the portage, above the rapids, a distance 
of about two-thirds of a mile. Walking thither in the rain, over a 
road made across the swamp, the surface of which is strewed with 
bowlders of various sizes, we found a collection of warehouses and a 
few log-cabins, just at the commencement of the rapids. Here our 
boats were moored at a wharf at the extremity of which was a huge 
crane for unloading copper ore. Here also lay at anchor several 
schooners, and a propeller that runs along the south shore, and 
occasionally crosses to Fort William. 

Our boats were three in number ; one large Mackinaw boat and 
two canoes of about four fathoms' length. One of these canoes was 
kindly lent to us by Prof. James Hall, of Albany, the other we hired ; 
the boat we had been obliged to buy, giving eighty dollars for it. It 
proved a considerable hindrance to speed, being always behind, ex- 
cept when the wind was aft and fresh. Our luggage, however, with the 
collections of specimens and the apparatus for collecting, could not be 
carried in canoes without uncomfortably loading them. From my own 
subsequent experience I should say that what is called a " five-man- 
boat," is the craft best adapted for such an occasion as ours, and 
this opinion was confirmed by a gentleman at the Sault who had 
tried the experiment. The canoes were precisely what one sees 
from Maine to Michigan, birch-bark stretched by two layers of thin, 
flat, wooden ribs, one transverse, the other longitudinal, placed close 
together, with a strip of wood round the gunnel, and the whole 



38 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

sewed with pine-roots. It is said that after the materials are cut out 
and fitted, two men to put them together, with six women to sew, 
can make two seven-fathom canoes in two days. While on the lake 
the canoes are not usually paddled, but rowed, the same number of 
men exerting greater force with oars than with paddles. By doub- 
ling the number of men, putting two on a seat, more of course can 
be accomplished with paddles. The gunnel of a canoe is too slight 
to allow of the cutting of rowlocks, or the insertion of thole-pins : so 
a flat strip from a tree, with a branch projecting at right angles, is 
nailed to the gunnel, and a loop of raw hide attached, through 
which the oar is passed. 

Our boats were stowed as follows : On the bottom were laid set- 
ting-poles and a spare paddle or two, (to prevent the inexperienced 
from putting their boot-heels through the birch-bark,) and over these, 
in the after part, a tent was folded. This formed the quarter-deck 
for the bourgeois, (as they called us,) and across it was laid the 
bedding, which had previously been made up into bolster-like pack- 
ages, covered with buffalo-robes, or with the matting of the country, 
a very neat fabric of some fine reed which the Indians call paquah. 
These bolsters served for our seats, and around them were disposed 
other articles of a soft nature, to form backs or even pillows to 
our sitting couches. The rest of the luggage was skilfully distrib- 
uted in other parts of the canoe, leaving room for the oarsmen 
to sit, on boards suspended by cords from the gunnel, and a 
place in the stern for the steersman. The cooking utensils were 
usually disposed in the bow, with a box of gum for mending the 
canoe and a roll or two of bark by way of ship-timber. Our canoe 
was distinguished by a frying-pan rising erect over the prow as 
figure-head, an importance very justly conferred on the culinary 
art in this wilderness, where nature provides nothing that can be 
eaten raw except blueberries. 

The voyageurs (some ten or twelve in number,) were mostly half- 
breeds, with a few Canadian French and one or two Indians. All 
except the Indians spoke French, and most of them more or less 
English, but there were only two who spoke English as well as they 
did French. The half-breeds were in general not much if at all 
lighter in complexion than the Indians, but their features were more or 
less Caucasian, and the hair inclining sometimes to 'brown. They were 



NARRATIVE. 39 

rather under medium height, but well made, particularly the chest and 
neck well-developed. The Indians were Ojibwas (6jib-wah), and had 
the physical pecuharities of their tribe, viz. : a straighter nose, rather 
greater fulness of the face, and less projecting cheek-bones, than the 
Western Indians. But I was most struck with the Irish appearance 
of the Canadians, and though I ascertained that they had no Irish 
blood in their veins, yet the notion often recurred during the trip, and 
I found myself several times surprised at missing the brogue. They 
were blue-eyed, with flaxen hair, a rather low and square head, and 
high-pitched voice. This resemblance, which also struck others of 
the party, is interesting as showing perhaps the persistance of blood 
and race. It was not until afterwards that I was informed that the 
French of Canada are Bretons and Normands by origin ; thus coming 
from that part of France in which, whether as most remote from in- 
vaders, or from having been recruited from the British Isles, the 
Celtic blood is best preserved. I do not know whether the Celtic 
features are so noticeable at this day in that part of France, but no 
one would have ever taken these men for Frenchmen. 

Our preparations occupied some time ; finally, just as we were 
about to start, it was suggested and on short consultation decided 
that we must have an additional canoe ; those provided proving insuffi- 
cient to hold us all comfortably. Two of the party accordingly 
remained behind to attend to this matter, and we got under weigh. 

We had but three in the canoe besides the boatmen, which gave 
us an advantage over the others, so that we immediately took the 
lead, and soon ran the other boats out of sight. The rain ceased, but 
the weather was still unsettled, and the wind, strong down the 
river, much retarding our progress. Our men had a hard pull of it, 
yet they kept up an unceasing chatter in Ojibwa, (which sounded 
occasionally much like Platt-Deutsch,) interspersed with peals of 
laughter. About five o'clock we reached the Pointe-aux-Pins, about 
six miles from the Sault, and as the wind had become very strong, 
and the other boats were far behind, we decided to wait for them. 

The Point is a mass of sand and gravel, mingled with large 
stones ; towards the main land are a few pitch-pines and willows ; 
the ground covered with moss and low bushes, and a few strawber- 
ries. Some flocks of pigeons were whirling about, at times dashing 
down to the ground, and then rising high in the air ; a couple of these 



40 ■ LAKE SUPERIOR. 

were shot, as well as a young creek-sheldrake, (^3Iergus cucullatns,^ 
from a small flock in a creek emptying into the river. On returning 
to the neighborhood of the boat, we found a fire lighted and prepara- 
tions making, under the superintendence of Henry, the steersman, for 
getting a supper from a ham and some flour which had been provi- 
dently stowed in our canoe. The process of frying the ham, and 
roasting the birds on a spit stuck in the ground, was neither new nor 
interesting to me otherwise than as conducive to supper. But the 
process of making bread with mere flour, water, salt, and a frying- 
pan, excited my curiosity. Nothing to my knowledge was put in to 
make the bread rise, neither had anything been provided by us for 
that purpose, yet the dough, after having been kneaded for a long 
time, pressed down into the frying-pan and toasted before the fire, 
turned out excellent bread, perfectly light and well-tasted. By what 
mystery the fermentation was accomplished or gotten over, I leave 
to the initiated to make out. Perhaps the vigorous and long-con. 
tinned kneading may have supplied the place of yeast ; at all events, 
some of the party, whose cooks were more sparing of their labor than 
ours, used to have heavy bread, a misfortune that never befell us. 

Shortly before dark the other canoe arrived, and we learned that 
the bateau had been driven back by the force of the wind, and had 
put in for the Canada shore. 

We were now established for the night. There was nothing very 
cheery about the aspect of the Pointe-aux-Pins ; — a desolate mass of 
sand, with the tent standing out against the bleak sky, backed by a 
few stunted willows, the river a couple of hundred yards in front, 
and a horizon of forest beyond. 

A bleak, desert situation, so exposed to the wind that we had to 
carry a guy far to windward, attached to the peak of the tent, to pre- 
vent it from being blown over. No vestige of human habitation in 
sight, and no living thing, except the little squads of pigeons scud- 
ding before the wind to their roosting place across the river. Yet I 
felt as I stood before the camp-fire, an unusual and unaccountable 
exhilaration, an outburst, perhaps, of that Indian nature that delights 
in exposure, in novel modes of life, and in going where nobody else 
goes. We slept comfortably on the sand, which makes a good bed, 
easily adapting itself to the shape of the body, with the drawback 
however of getting into one's hair and blankets. 



NARRATIVE. 41 

July 1st. — Early this morning our companions in the bateau 
joined us. They had run some danger of swamping, the day before, 
and had been forced to put in on the Canada side, not much above the 
Sault, where they found good quarters on board a steamboat that 
had been seized for smuggling and laid up in ordinary by the Cana- 
dian government. After breakfast we started in company and got 
up to Gros-Cap, about fifteen miles, where we halted, there being no 
good camping-ground for some distance beyond. 

From the Pointe-aux-Pins to the mouth of the river, some four or 
five miles, the width of the stream varies from one to two miles. 
Here it enlarges rather suddenly, so that Gros-Cap and Point-Iro- 
quois, the Pillars of Hercules of Lake Superior, as some one calls them, 
are six or seven miles apart. This is the true entrance of the lake. 
The shore continues low and marshy for some distance beyond ; then 
the high land of the Cape comes in sight, stretching across at right 
angles with the course of the river, and soon the scenery in the im- 
mediate neighborhood also assumes the proper character of the lake. 
I was struck with the similarity to some portions of our sea-coast, 
for instance, in the neighborhood of Gloucester in Massachusetts, 
or Cape Elizabeth, near Portland. Rocky points, covered with 
vegetation, rising abruptly from deep water, alternate with pebble 
beaches ; back of this, the land slopes gradually upward, densely 
covered with white pine, canoe-birch and aspen, to the foot of 
the cliff, which rises steeply to the height of seven hundred feet, 
showing vertical faces of bare rock, and crowned on the top with 
evergreens. 

We encamped early in the day in a narrow cove, formed by a 
point of low rocks, running almost parallel to the shore. Here 
we encamped among large aspens, and thickets of the beautiful 
(white-flowering raspberry of the lakes, (^Ruhus Nutkanus.~) \ Omtj 
friends joined us from the Sault with a large seven-fathom canoe 
pulling three oars, which was christened the " Dancing Feather." 

After dinner, two of us set off for the top of the cliff. The slope 
forming the border of the lake in this spot seems to be merely the 
(Uhris fallen from the face of the cliff, which rises so abruptly that 
we were obhged to skirt along its base for some distance before we 
found a practicable ascent in a gully in the face of the rock, and here 

4 



42 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

even only by help of the trees. Climbing along the ledges and from 
one trunk to another, we at length reached the top, a mass of rock, 
intermingled with spruce trees. The wind blew fresh and we were 
in hopes to be free from the flies and musquitoes, which were rather 
troublesome below. The result showed that we had reasoned cor- 
rectly as to the musquitoes, but not at all as to the flies, who, as we 
now learned for the first time, by actual experience, affect high and 
dry places. ( They surrounded us in such swarms that it was impos- 
sible to remain quiet for a moment ; brushing them away with 
branches was of no use, and even a musquito veil proved no 
protection. J The meshes being rather larger than their bodies, 
they alighted for a moment upon it, and then deliberately walked 
through. When the wind blew very hard they would make a lee for 
an instant, and then reappear in clouds. On arriving at the camp, 
we were speckled with blood, particularly about the forehead and 
back of the ears. Our faces looked as if charges of dust shot had 
been fired into them, each sting leaving a bloody spot. 

It was discovered this evening that some things had been left be- 
hind, and our short experience had already taught the need of some 
others, so two of the party volunteered to go back in a light canoe 
to fetch them from the Sault. 

July 2d. — It was thick and rainy to-day, so we did not leave our 
camp. In our immediate neighborhood were several lodges of In- 
dians ; " gens du Lac^'' as our men called them, from whom we 
bought trout. They had the general features of the Ojibwas, but 
ragged and dirty. 'They subsist by fishing, and seem to bear out 
the remark that among savage nations, the fishing tribes are the 
most degraded.J Their lodges were composed of a dome-shaped frame- 
work of poles, over which were laid pieces of birch bark. We often 
afterwards met with these frames at our encampments, but without 
the bark covering, which they probably carry off with them. They 
are perpetually shifting their quarters, for no reason but mere rest- 
lessness, often leaving a prosperous fishery to go off to some other 
place where the prospects are entirely uncertain. 

During our stay at this place, finding it inconvenient to eat our 
meals all together, we separated into four messes, each having its 
boat and its tent, and making its separate camp-fire and cuisine. 



NARRATIVE. 43 

This arrangement is indeed on many accounts an advisable one. 
Otherwise there is a great deal of squabbling among the men, for 
each is willing to look out for his own canoe and bourgeois, but not 
for the rest, and they try to shift the labor from one to the other. 
Except that we usually encamped in the same neighborhood at night, 
and were sometimes within hail of each other during the day, we 
might henceforward be considered as four separate parties. 

In our canoe everything settled down after this into a very 
methodical routine, which I may as well describe here. We were 
provided in all respects with an independent equipment, embrac- 
ing provisions for a day or two, viz., salt pork, ham, potatoes, peas, 
beans, flour, hard bread, rice, sugar, butter, coffee, tea, pickles and 
condiments. When we landed in the evening, as soon as the canoe 
was unladen and hauled up, two of the men proceeded to pitch the tent, 
while the other collected wood, made a fire, put on the tea-kettle, and 
brought up the mess-chest, which contained tin plates, knives and 
forks, &c., and also in bottles and tin cases those of our stores that 
would be injured by moisture. Then they devoted themselves to 
preparing supper. One kneaded dough in a large tin pan ; another 
fried or roasted the fish, if we had any, or the pork or ham, if fish 
was wanting. A large camp-kettle, suspended by a withe from a 
tripod of sticks, over the fire, contained a piece of pork, and dump- 
lings, which the men preferred for themselves, or occasionally a rice 
pudding for us. When all was ready, an India-rubber cloth (which 
served to protect the luggage, and on occasion for a sail,) was 
spread on the ground, and the dishes arrayed upon it. Around 
this we reclined in the classical fashion, and Henry stood by to serve 
coffee and fetch anything that might be wanted. As to provisions, 
if I were consulted about the outfit of such a party as ours, I should 
recommend a full supply of rice and sugar. Maple sugar (which 
can usually be had in these regions,) is as good as any, for one's taste 
becomes unsophisticated in the woods ; the rice, T may observe, must 
be boiled in a bag, and not loose in the camp-kettle, as the Professor's 
man did it one day, when it came out in the shape of mutton broth 
without the mutton. Salt pork is very well where 6ne goes a-foot, 
or paddles his own canoe, but in a life of so little exertion as ours, 
the system cannot dispose of so much carbon, and rejects it accord- 



44 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

inglj. For the same reason, perhaps, I found that I not only did 
not miss the milk in the coffee, but could not drink it when it was 
sent to us at the trading posts. Potatoes would no doubt be a good 
thing, but our men did not know how to cook them. Before we 
started, the question being raised as to the relative quantities of tea 
and coffee to be bought, the most thought they should drink very 
little coffee, but depend upon tea. On the contrary, however, I 
believe there was hardly a cup of tea drank on our whole tour, (ex- 
cept by the men,) when coffee could be had. The truth is, that tea 
is very refreshing after a hard day's work, and it was prized accord- 
ingly by the men, but we did not take exercise enough to care for it. 
After we had done our meal, the men- took theirs. At dark 
Henry brought us a candle, and then he and the other men tui-ned 
in, all lying close together, sometimes entirely in the open air, 
sometimes with their heads under the canoe, or if it rained they 
made a kind of tent with the India-rubber cloth. They had each a 
very comfortable supply of blankets, &c., and somewhat to my sur- 
prise each was provided with a pillow. Our OAvn bedding consisted, 
in my case, for instance, of a buffalo robe by way of mattress, and two 
very heavy Mackinaw blankets, which I had brought from Boston, 
as they are dearer and of inferior quality at the Sault. Others had 
the same, or an equivalent. I have heard of travellers who brought 
blow-up mattresses of India-rubber, and if these things are managea- 
ble, I should recommend their being taken, as we were often incon- 
venienced by the large angular stones of the beaches on which it is 
usually necessary to encamp. At all events I should decidedly 
take a pillow of this description, for we soon found the voya- 
ge urs were wiser in this matter than we. In the morning we started 
about sunrise, and usually made ten or twelve miles before break- 
fast, giving the men a rest of about an hour at breakfast time. At 
noon we stopped to lunch, making no fire. Our usual time for en- 
camping for the night was seven o'clock, but this depended somewhat 
upon ovir reaching a good camping-ground. Once an hour or so 
during the day the men would lie upon their oars, and one of them 
would light a short clay pipe, filled with kinni-Jdnnik* After a 

* A mixture of dried bear -berry leaves {Arctostaphyllus uva-ursi) and plug-tobacco, rub- 
bed together between the thumb and fingers. Their tinder was a fragment of a tough, 
yellowish fungus that grows on the maple and birch. 



NAKRATIVE. 45 

puff or two he would pass it to the next, and when each had had his 
turn, it was put away and they took to their oars again. 

While detained in our tent by the rain to-day, we employed 
ourselves in manufacturing a musquito net out of some muslin we had 
brought for the purpose. This being provided with cords, was 
stretched at night from one tent-pole to the other, (the tents being 
roof-shaped, with flat gables and a tent-pole at each end,) and pegged 
down to the ground at the sides, thus forming a tent within the tent-; 
an arrangement quite essential to a comfortable night's rest in these 
regions. 

The point forming the breakwater of our harbor, and to which 
the bateau was moored, presented the first example we had seen 
of drift scratches and grooves. Some of the grooves were several 
feet in length, the surface a curve of eighteen inches radius, and as 
smooth and even as if cut with a gouge. These marks were almost 
entirely confined to the inner side of the point, where some of the 
scratches could be traced as far below the surface of the water as we 
could distinctly see, that is, some five or six feet ; the lake side pre- 
sented rough points of rock, occasioned, as Prof. A. explained, by the 
decomposition of the surface on that side, from its greater exposure 
to the wind and waves. In the afternoon, the rain having ceased, 
we assembled to hear the Professor's remarks on the specimens of 
various rocks collected in the neighborhood. 

" Geology," he said, " investigates the great masses of the rocks ; mineral- 
ogy the forms and composition of their materials. Geologists are apt to neglect 
the study of mineralogy, and thus to overlook the differences, in different 
countries, of rocks bearing the same name. 

" If geology had been studied first in this country, the text-books of the 
science would read very differently. For example, there is no rock in this 
region answering the description of true granite. We have granitic rocks 
enough, but none of an amorphic structure. All are more or less stratified. 
At the beginning of the century, each of the two great schools in geology 
maintained that all rocks had but one origin, disagreeing, however, as to 
what this origin was. The reason was, each had examined only the rocks 
in its neighborhood. About Edinburgh the rocks are trap ; Hutton, there- 
fore, referred everything to the action of fire. Near Freiberg there is 
nothing but sedimentary rock ; Werner, therefore, would admit no influence ^ 
but that of water. 



46 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

" Most of the rocks in this region are Plutonic, that is, they manifest the 
action of fire. The only sedimentary or aqueous rock found here is sand- 
stone, the age of which is uncertain, as no fossils have as yet been found in 
it.* Probably it belongs to the Potsdam sandstone. It passes frequently 
into quartz and quartzose rock. If quartz were broken up, mixed with clay 
and lime, and subjected to the action of heat, the forms of metaraorphic 
rocks would be produced which we see here. Some varieties, however, are 
quite peculiar, as, for instance, a red felspar porphyry, with numerous 
specks of dark epidot." 

The canoe from the Sault arrived this afternoon. 

July '2>d. — The air was very chilly this morning, when at about 
half past five our canoes issued from the little cove into the open 
lake. But the prospect before us was sufficient to divert our 
thoughts from any discomfort. On our right was the deep bight 
of Goulais Bay, terminated by Goulais Point, a high promontory 
of the character of Gros Cap. Directly ahead rose the fine head- 
land of Mamainse, (" little sturgeon,''^') distant about thirty miles. 
We were yet in the shadow of Gros-Cap, and all the shore in sight 
seemed to have the same mountainous character. Ridge over ridge, 
distinct at last only by the cutting line against the sky, it had the 
freedom and play of outhne, which, rather than size, distinguishes a 
mountain from a hill. So different was the scene from anything 
on the Lower Lakes, that although I knew in general that the shore 
of Lake Superior was much bolder and more rocky than that of the 
others, yet it took me by surprise, and I was disposed io think this 
part of it an exception, until assured, by one who had been here 
before, that the grandeur of the scenery constantly increased to the 
northward. 

Opposite Mamainse stands White-Fish Point on the south shore, 
and the two approach each other somewhat, repeating on a large 
scale the feature of Gros-Cap and Point-Iroquois, which is again 
repeated on a gigantic scale by Point Keewaiwenaw and the land 
of wliich Otter Head forms the outer extremity. White-Fish Point 
has the outline of a raven's head, with a projecting sand spit for the 
bill : the high land above was just visible. We passed this morning 
Isle Parisien and the Sandy Islands, low, flat islands covered with 

* Remains of chambered shells have been since found in this rock, on the southern 
ahore of the lake. 



NARRATIVE. 47 

trees, like all those in this part of the lake. Several loons flew by 
to-day, and whenever one appeared, the men all began to shout " oory^ 
oory^'' which seems to be the Indian " hurrah,"* whereupon the bird 
would usually fly in circles round the boat. This was regularly 
repeated whenever a loon came in sight ; the experiment was tried 
on gulls and sheldrake, but not with the same success. 

The sun and wind rose together, so that by eleven o'clock it was 
very warm, and at the same time so windy that we were obliged 
to make for Maple Island, a low, sandy island, densely covered 
with trees. On the lake side the trees were covered with long 
lichens, ( JJsnea^ and presented a weather-beaten aspect, much in 
contrast with the side towards the land. The shore here was evidently 
wearing away, and the roots of many of the trees were exposed. 
The beach was covered with large fragments of red porphyry, and 
slabs of dark red sandstone, often ripple-marked. 

When the bateau arrived we found they had caught some fine 
trout on their way hither. This excited the emulation of the other 
boats, and hooks, &c.,were forthwith prepared. The tackle consists 
of small cod-line, with a hook (or often two,) with a large sinker of 
lead melted round it. The bait is a piece of pork, or better, a 
trout's stomach, drawn over the hook and tied at the shank. A 
simple plate of brass, with a couple of hooks on the lower edge, is 
said to be very effective without any other bait, and I have heard 
of a pewter spoon being used with success. This is allow^ed to 
trail a dozen fathoms astern of the canoe, and kept in constant 
motion by jerking the line. After the first excitement, as the fish 
did not bite oftener than half a dozen times a day, and sometimes 
not at all, the lines were handed over to the steersmen, who made 
them fast round their paddles, and thus kept up the requisite motion 
without any trouble. The fish we caught were the lake trout, 
(^Salmo amethystus,') and Siscowet, (^Salmo Siscowet Ag., see Plate 
I.) ; their average weight five or six pounds, /^he latter fish is \ 
so exceedingly fat that we found it uneatable. It is said to be \ 
much improved by pickling. White-fish and lake-herring are taken I 
only in nets, and the other fishes only in the streams. The wind J 
did not allow us to get off" to-day. 

♦See Kip's Early Jesuit Missions, pp. 60, 140. 



48 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

July Ath. — Thermometer one would guess about 40° Fah. this morn- 
ing. Goulais Point is separated from Mamainse bj Batcheewauung 
Bay, by far the most considerable inlet on the E. and N. E. part of 
the lake, (being about ten miles deep, by five across the mouth,) 
unless we count as such Michipicotin Harbor, which is rather the 
commencement of a new direction of the shore, than an indentation 
in it. The general outlines of the lake are simple, and though cut 
into innumerable narrow coves, yet bays of any considerable size 
are rare. 

Not long after starting we encountered several canoes of Indians, 
(^gens du Lae^ on their way to the Manitoulin, to receive their 
annual " present" from the British Government. Among them was 
a chief, who stood up and. addressed our men in his own tongue, 
which, as we were informed by Henry, was a separate dialect of the 
Ojibwa, but intelligible enough to them. In an unwritten language, 
dialects soon spring up. A lifetime, the men said, was sufficient to 
make a noticeable chansie in their languaci;e, thoucrh where large 
numbers are collected together and any kind of schooling exists, the 
bibles and catechisms must do much to arrest the process. We 
stopped for brealcfast at ten o'clock, at a point under Mamainse, 
much resembling Maple Island in its general features. Charred logs 
and beds of matted leaves on the beach, showed it had been recently 
visited. 

From Mamainse onward the character of the shore changes. In- 
stead of the low sandy islets, we now passed among isolated rocks of 
greenstone, rising abruptly from deep water, generally bare, but 
sometimes crowned with a tuft of trees at the top. The rock, which 
about Gros-Cap is sandstone, often unaltered, now becomes more 
highly metamorphic. But the larger islands and the edge under 
the cliffs, continue of sandstone, and are flat and low for some dis- 
tance to the northward. The line of cliffs is continuous, rising at 
a distance of a quarter of a mile at most from the water, with 
an average elevation of two to three hundred feet. The whole 
surface, down to the very beach, was covered with trees : indeed 
I may say once for all, that with the exception of some ancient 
terraces of fine sand and gravel to be described hereafter, and a 
few summits of bare rock, the entire shore of Lake Superior, as far 



NARRATIVE. 49 

as we went, is continuously covered with forest. The trees continued 
the same, except that the white pines and maples had disappeared. 
The number of species is small ; black and white spruce, balsam fir, 
canoe birch and aspen, with arbor vitse in the moist places, and here 
and there a few larches and red pines, with an occasional yellow 
birch ; the spruces prevailing on the high land, and the birch and 
aspen near the water, yet everywhere a certain proportion of each. 
From the great similarity of the evergreens on the one hand, and the 
white-stemmed aspens and birches on the other, at the distance of a 
couple of hundred yards the forest seemed to be composed of only 
two kinds of trees. The trees are not large, usually not exceeding 
thirty or forty feet in height. Yet the whole effect is rich and 
picturesque. Here, as in all the features of the lake, the im- 
pression is a grand uniformity, never monotonous, but expressive of 
its vmique character. 

The resemblance to the sea-shore often recurred to my mind. Ac- 
cording to Dr. Leconte, several insects found here are identical 
with species belonging to the sea-shore, and others corresponding or 
similar. The beach-pea, Lathyrus marithnus, and Polygonum 
maritimum, both of them sea-shore plants, are abundant in this 
neighborhood ; the former, indeed, throughout the north shore of the 
lake. 

Although so cold this morning, yet by noon the heat was intense. 
The weather, indeed, during the whole time we were on the lake, 
was such as we sometimes have in Massachusetts in September ; 
cool morning and night, and warm in the middle of the day. The 
sun has great power, and blisters the hands and face unless well 
guarded, but the air is cooled by the vast expanse of water, 
(which contains ice during the largest part of the year, and even 
on the surface is rarely above 40° Fah. at any season,) so that it 
was never warm in the shade, or when the sun was below the hori- 
zon. We in our canoe being induced to land by a white pebble 
beach which at a very short distance had the appearance of sand, 
and thus promised an entomological harvest, indemnified ourselves 
by a bath in the icy, crystal Avater. Here was -another resemblance 
to the sea ; we could dive from the rocks into thirty feet of water, 
which, moreover, was of about the ordinary temperature of the 



50 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

ocean at Nahant. Above the beach and parallel to it was a terrace 
of sand about fifteen or eighteen feet in height. Others of the same 
kind but of various heights we traced during the day, sometimes 
only by the terracing of the forest on the different levels. 

The cliff, which rose a few hundred yards from the beach, was 
cloven to the base, presenting a wide chasm of bare, splintered 
rock, several hundred feet deep, nearly parallel to the shore. The 
surrounding woods had been burnt, leaving the black stems, some 
standing and some lying crossed at various angles, like jack-straws. 
The ground was already covered with the fire-weed, (^Epilohium 
angustifolium,') striving to conceal the ruin with its showy blossoms. 
Black flies very numerous and troublesome. They appear to have 
a fondness for the burnt woods, in which we always found them 
abundant. 

In the course of the day we passed a deserted mining "location," 
marked by ruinous log-huts ; and in another place we saw on the 
rocks- the wreck of one of their bateaux. At about five o'clock 
we came in together at the Pointe-aux-Mines, or Mica-Bay, as they 
call it now. This establishment belongs to the Quebec Mining Com- 
pany, who have already commenced operations here. It is a deep 
cove, protected on either side by ranges of rocks, with a broad beach 
at the bottom, and above this a steep bank, on which, at the height 
of thirty or forty -feet above the water, stands the very neat wooden 
cottage of Capt. Matthews, the superintendent, and about it the 
storehouse, the lodgings of the workmen, &c. We were very hos- 
pitably received by Capt. and Mrs. Matthews, and enjoyed in their 
house the luxury of a civilized tea, before which, however, we visited 
the mine, which is about half a mile from the house, by a Brock- 
en-like wood-path, nearly all the way up hill. 

Capt. M., avoiding the errors of his predecessors on both sides of 
the lake, spent eighteen months in making his preparations, securing 
a thorough system of drainage, ventilation, &c., before attempting 
to get out any ore. The work seemed to be carried on with great 
method and thoroughness, and to be in very successful operation. 
The present state of the concern he represented as most promising. 

Jail/ 5th. — The Professor before starting showed us a rock at the 
south entrance of the bay, which he considered a proof positive of 



NARKATIVE. 61 

the correctness of the glacial theory. Its surface was a couple of 
hundred yards in extent, sloping regularly north to the water's edge. 
The whole was polished and scratched, except where disintegrated. 
The scratches had two directions, the prevailing one north 10° to 30° 
west, the other north, 55° west. The scratches on the outer or lake 
side seemed to have a rather more westerly direction than the rest. 
Great numbers of these striae could be traced below the water's edge, 
from which they ascended in some places at an angle of 30° with 
the surface, showing, as the Professor remarked, that they could not 
have been produced by a floating body. The rock is granitic, with 
an astonishing number of veins and injections of epidotic felspar, 
granite, and trap, often crossing each other so as to form a compli- 
cated net-work. Wherever exposed, it was ground down to an even 
surface. 

The day was calm and very warm. About noon we stopped at 
Montreal River, (one of several of this name on the lake.) This 
river, forty yards wide at the mouth, empties through a kind of 
delta, partly overgrown with large trees. The water is deep and 
clear, but of a rich umber color, such as we often see in the small 
streams in New England. This is the case with all the rivers we 
met with on the lake ; the color was there attributed to the presence 
of pitch, an explanation the Prof, thought likely to be correct. At 
its entrance into the lake is a broad beach, which on the south forma 
a point somewhat jutting across the mouth. 

On the northern side, at a short distance from the water, the beach, 
which was of small pebbles, had a slope of 30° that is, nearly as 
steep as it could stand. We frequently met with such steep beaches, 
often of a considerable height. Outside there is a bar which extends 
entirely across, six feet below the surface. The stream issues from 
the hills through a chasm sixty or eighty feet deep and a few yards 
wide, with straight walls of rock, somewhat overhanging on one side. 
From this gorge the river issues with great force. Higher up there 
was a cascade some forty feet in height, falling from a dark, still 
lakelet, and above this again a succession of rapids. This is the 
general manner in which the streams on this side of the lake make 
their way down from the table-land through the barrier of rock. On 
the delta below were several of the largest red pines (P. resinosa,} 



52 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

I ever saw. I regret that I did not take the girth of one of them, 
which must have been five feet in diameter. But the black flies and 
musquitoes wore so annoying as to absorb much of one's attention ; 
the only refuge was the beach, where we had made fires to drive 
them off". The heat of the day made a bath very agreeable ; we 
found the current of the river at the mouth so strong as to make 
some difficulty in swimming even this short distance across. 

One of the men killed here a squirrel of the kind that takes the 
place of our" Chipmunk" in these regions, the Tamias quadrivittatus. 
It resembles our animal, except that it is a little smaller, has a longer 
tail, and four black stripes instead of three, on its back. We found 
it afterwards much more abundant than any other species, particu- 
larly on hill-sides among broken rocks, attracting the attention by its 
loud, pecuhar cry. 

On the bank was the skeleton of an Indian lodge, and a well-worn 
trail ran up along the stream. The Indians here as everywhere love 
the neighborhood of rivers, where we always found traces of their 
camps. As we left the river we saw some of their handiwork on a 
rock over the beach. It was the picture of a schooner under sail, 
scratched out from the black lichens so as to show the lighter surface 
of the rock. 

The Professor pointed out here the difference of water action from 
that of ice. The former, he said, leaves the harder parts prominent, 
although the whole is smoothed, as was the case in this instance, but 
the latter grinds all down to a uniform surface, scratching it at the 
same time in straight lines. 

This afternoon, the water being smooth, we tried an experiment as 
to its transparency, by lowering a tin cup at the end of a fishing-line. 
It went out of sight at forty- two feet. It is said that when the 
water is entirely unruffled and the sky clear, a white object may be 
seen at the depth of one hundred and twenty feet. 

Passing Montreal Island, a large, low island covered with trees, 
some three or four miles from the shore, we threaded our way through 
a group of rocky islets and came out into a wide bay, which we trav- 
ersed,!. e.,took the direct line across, instead of following the curve 
of the shore. The voyageurs are in general unwilling to keep out more 
than a quarter of a mile or so, and usually coast along the rocks. But 



NARRATIVE. 53 

this time the weather behig so cahn, they ventured on a course which 
brought us at one time about two miles from the shore. Their cau- 
tion seemed to some of us, accustomed to a bolder style of navigation, 
somewhat exaggerated. But if the rocky character of the shore, 
the suddenness with which both wind and sea rise here, and the 
frailness of the vessels be taken into consideration, perhaps it is not 
so unnecessary as it would seem at first. Moreover it is to be re- 
membered that although a swim of a mile might under ordinary 
circumstances be no very desperate undertaking, yet in this icy 
water, a person swamped at that distance from the shore would in 
all probability be disabled long before reaching it. And even if 
the shore were reached, the prospect of having to make one's way 
on foot through this rugged, gameless, fly-possessed region to the 
nearest trading-post or mining location, would be dismal in the ex- 
treme. Deprived of salt pork and biscuit, one's subsistence would 
depend on the chance of snaring a hare or two, with tripe cle roche 
as the sole alternative. 

As we pushed out into the bay a weather-beaten veteran in the 
Professor's boat struck up a song, the others in the canoe and those 
of the " Dancing Feather " joining in the chorus and repeating each 
verse as he got through with it. Their singing had nothing very 
artistic about it, being in fact only a kind of modified recital, in 
a quavering and rather monotonous voice, coming, with little modula- 
tion, from the mouth only, but they kept time well, and it had a 
heartiness and spirit that rendered it agreeable. Their songs 
were all French ; according to the Professor, the wanton chansons 
of the aneien regime, which the ancestors of these men had no 
doubt heard sung by gay young ofiicers, in remembrance of distant 
beloved Paris. A strange contrast, as he said, between these produc- 
tions of the hot-bed civilization of a splendid and luxurious court, and 
the wilderness Avhere alone they now survive ! The tunes, I fancy, 
are indigenous ; at least, their singing had a certain naivete and some- 
times sadness about it quite at variance with the words. Neither 
the Canadians of the bateau, nor the Indians (of whom we had one, 
with a couple of half breeds in whom the Indian blood decidedly pre- 
dominated, in our canoe) joined at all in the singing, either now or 



54 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

afterwards, though the Indians had a low monotonous chant which 
the J occasionally grumbled to themselves. 

We were looking for a stream called Flea River, where there were 
said to be falls of 90 feet, but not finding it, we decided to encamp 
on a sandy beach at the bottom of the bay, where we heard the noise 
of rapids. This was the Riviere aux Crapauds, or Toad River. There 
seems to be about this continent some pervading obstacle to the giving 
of reasonable names to places. In this region, indeed, one is not 
troubled with the classicality of New York, for instance, but, as in the 
case of those just mentioned, there is nothing very happy in the choice ; 
and as for repetition, it is fully as bad as anywhere. There seems to 
be no end to Black Rivers and White Rivers and Montreal Rivers, 
occasionally varied into Little Black and Large Black, and so on. 

As we neared the shore several canoes of Indians came out to 
sell fish. Their appearance as they squatted in their canoes, wrapped 
in their blankets, brought to mind the pictures of the South Sea 
Islanders. Their faces were round, full and rather flat, with no great 
projection of the cheek bones, the mouth very wide, with thickish lips, 
and gaping like a negro's. The hair brownish, and not so straight 
and coarse as that of the Indians in general. They were very filthy, 
and their clothing in general ragged. They seemed, however, good 
natured and happy, and grinned widely as they accosted us with 
the customary salutation of "Boojou, boojou ! " (^Bonjour, honjour). 
Their canoes are very small, generally not more than nine to twelve 
feet in length, yet each usually contains a whole family ; the man 
in the stern, the squaw in the bow, and the intermediate space filled 
up with two or three children of various ages, and generally at least 
one dog. In exchange for their fish they prefer flour or tobacco to 
money, of which they do not know the value very well. Indeed in 
any case they seem to regulate their demands rather by what the 
buyer offers than according to any notion of relative values. Thus 
when we offered in exchange for some fish a quantity of flour 
that would have overpaid it at the Sault, they thought it too little. 
On the other hand, a fifteen-pound trout was bought for a small 
fish-hook. We were afterwards told at Michipicotin (^Mishi-picotn) 
that an Indian came there once from a distance to buy supplies, and 
produced a bundle, in which, after taking off wrapper after wrapper, 



NARRATIVE. 55 

there appeared enclosed — a ninepence ! He had taken it in ex- 
change for a number of valuable skins. 

Pulling in for the beach we soon encountered the brown water of 
the river, but its mouth was not to be seen, the sand-beach extending 
apparently unbroken across the cove. When close in, however, we 
discovered an opening in the corner, whence issued a rapid current, 
and crossing a bar, we entered the mouth of the river, which is thus 
shut off by a spit of sand extending from the south or left bank of the 
river, northward across the stream, leaving only a narrow outlet. 
Inside, the river has a breadth of forty or fifty yards, flowing through 
a wide expanse of sand. This sand-beach is terraced, showing differ- 
ent heights of the river, and above the beach a succession of ter- 
races was marked in the forest. On the south side the sand spit is cut 
away by the current, forming a vertical bank, in which is seen the 
horizontal stratification of the sand and gravel. The same general 
features were noticed subsequently at other rivers, and seem to de- 
pend on a general law. 

On landing I walked towards the rapids, about a quarter of a mile 
up the stream. The flies and musquitoes made their appearance as 
soon as I entered the woods, and jumping down into the bed of the 
stream with the intention of sketching the mass of water that was foam- 
ing down over the rocks, I was instantly surro\mded by such swarms 
that there was no getting on without a smudge. Even standing in 
the midst of the' smoke, so many still clung to me that my paper was 
sprinkled with the dead bodies of those killed as I involuntarily brush- 
ed my hand across my face. We took refuge on the sand, at a dis- 
tance from the woods, and here were comparatively free from them. 
But here their place was supplied by sand flies, the hrulots or " no- 
see-ems," an insect so minute as to be hardly noticeable, but yet more 
annoying where they are found than the black flies or musquitoes, 
for their minuteness renders musquito nets of no avail, and they 
bite all night in warm weather, whereas the black fly disappears at 
dark. Such is their eagerness in biting that they tilt their bodies 
up vertically and seem to bury their heads in the flesh. We found, 
however, that an anointment of camphorated oil was a complete 
protection, making a coating too thick for them to penetrate, and 
entangling their tiny wings and limbs. 



56 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

July Qth. — Weather calm and overcast. Stopped to breakfast at 
the mouth of a river much like the last. Hearing the noise of rapids, 
some of us made our way up the stream until we came in sight of 
the fall, but the musquitoes were so unendurable that we hastened 
back. 

As the day advanced the wind rose, and gave the bateau an opportu- 
nity to use her sails, but only for a short time, speedily coming ahead. 
The prospect in front of us was a noble one, lofty headlands rising one 
beyond the other until fading away in the distance. The shore, which 
had continued to present an uninterrupted ridge three or four hun- 
dred feet in height, becomes more abrupt and broken about Cape 
Gargantua, with deep chasms from decomposed dikes. The aspect 
of the coast here is exceedingly picturesque, steep broken points and 
rocky islands and islets generally sloping towards the north, and often 
worn smooth, grooved and scratched on the north side. We passed 
inside of one cliiF, that showed a vertical face of at least two hundred 
feet in height, dyed with an infinite variety of colors by the weather 
and by the lichens, whose brilliancy was increased by the moist atmos- 
phere. One orange-colored lichen in particular, was conspicuous in 
large patches. Here and there a tuft of birch aided, by the contrast 
of its bright green, the delicate gradation of tints on the gray rock. 
On a little strip of beach at the foot of a cliff in a cove called Agate 
Bay, we picked up an abundance of very pretty agates and other 
interesting minerals. At lunch-time we stopped at % curious rock, 
part of which seems as if cut away nearly to the level of the water, 
while the rest rises steeply to the height of thirty or forty feet. One of 
the common Indian legends about the deluge and the creation of the 
earth attaches to this rock, and the Indians still regard it with venera- 
tion. According to one of the men, " the Evil Spirit," (N. B. The 
gods of the aborigines here as elsewhere are to their Christianized 
descendants nothing but the devil, the elder spirit of all mythologies.) 
after making the world, changed himself and his two dogs into stone 
at this place, and the Indians never pass without " preaching a 
sermon" and leaving some tobacco. Even our half-breeds, though 
they laughed very freely about it, yet I believe left some tobacco on 
the top. This rock is remarkable in a mineralogical point of view. 
It is an amygdaloid porphyry containing asbestos and quartz, with 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 57 

thin layers of chlorite, and injections of granite. Numbers of mar- 
tins and barn-swallows (^H. viridis and americand) frequent these 
cliffs, and often a pair of screaming sparrow-hawks. Farther on, the 
hills were burnt over for a great distance, showing rounded summits 
of white scorched rock, the hchens and earth mostly washed off from 
them, but the blackened tree-stems still upright. 

At Cape Choyye, where we encamped, the cliff comes boldly down 
upon the lake, the rocks rising from the water to the height of three 
hundred feet, with narrow chasms, sometimes vertical, sometimes 
shghtly inclined, and strewed all the way up with stones, like the 
" slides " at the White Mountains. Beyond this it falls away into a 
vast basin of green sloping hills, curving inland and then sweeping 
out to rocky points beyond. The cliff, wherever the slope allows any 
soil to rest, is covered with birches to its base, leaving room for a wide 
slope of debris, and a beach that rises in five terraces, the lower one 
falling steeply to the water some twenty feet, showing that it alone 
can be connected with the present level of the lake, and that the 
rest must belong to former epochs. • 

At the water's edge were several unconnected masses of dark 
red sandstone in place. One mass, which John, our " middleman," * 
christened "fire-boat" ( i. e. steamboat) we waded out to, in 
order to avoid the flies while we bathed. Further on was a broad 
sheet of the same rock, sloping gradually from below the water 
up to the beach, full of " pot holes," worn into the rock by the action 
of the waves on stones lodged in its crevices. One of these stones, 
which was nearly round, might have weighed fifty pounds. Some 
of the holes were three or four feet deep, and as many in diameter. 
One was in the shape of a cloven foot ; others formed steps, the stone 
having worn down at one side of the hole for a certain distance, 
worked on horizontally awhile, and then downwards again. The outer 
part of the rock, over which the water still washed at ordinary times, 
was covered with winding channels, of only a few inches' depth, run- 
ning off into the lake, formed apparently by the grating back and 
forth of sand and small pebbles. 

July 1th. — We were off by four this morning, but the wind 

*The bowman and steersman of a canoe are called the "bouts'' and are usually 
picked men, receiving higher pay than the " milieux." 
6 



58 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

was up before us ; and when we started, we foresaw that we 
should have head wmd to contend with to-day. 

At sunrise, the bay north of Cape Choyye presented a noble land- 
scape. On all sides but one, an unbroken extent of rounded hills, 
so evenly wooded, that as the sun touched the curves at the top, it 
looked like a bank of grass. At one spot, far in the bottom of -the 
bay, a white streak down the hill, and a faint roar at intervals, beto- 
kened the cascade of a stream that enters here. 

The cove where we breakfasted, narrow and rocky at its mouth, 
and expanding inside, had something so liveable and civilized 
about it, that one might almost look for a cottage or two on some of 
the beautiful points of abrupt birch-clad rock. 

On the rocks here, we found the purple flower of the wild onion, 
and the pretty Potentilla fruticosa : also brilliant lilies, reminding 
one of home. I was quite puzzled at finding our common red 
/ cedar, (Juniperus Virginianus,') which we had not seen hitherto, 
creeping on the rocks ; not forming a tuft like the creeping savin, 
but a wide-meshed net-work of long straight shoots. 

The shore on the northern side of the bay becomes yet bolder 
and higher, attaining, according to Bayfield's chart, the height of 
700 feet. Between Cape Choyye and Michipicotin, a distance of 
about twenty miles, I did not notice but one beach, and that of 
only a few yards' extent. The rocks rise from the water, often ver- 
tically, several hundred feet, scored with deep rents and chasms, 
from decomposed trap-dykes, and striped down with black lichens. 
In some places, huge basalt-like parallelograms of rock stood out like 
pulpits. Along the top of the ridge, stretched the never-ending 
spruce forest, and wherever a gully or break varied the perpendic- 
ular face, a few birches crept downward from crevice to crevice. 

On turning the point of Michipicotin harbor, we encountered the 
full force of the wind, now fresh from the west ; and what was Avorse 
for us, something of a sea. Our course was such as to bring the 
wind abeam, and afibrd little shelter from the shore. We edged 
along from point to point, so close to the rocks that often the oars 
almost touched, and we were hardly lifted on the crest of a wave, 
before it broke against the cliff, and rushed up into the chasms at 
its foot. This was much closer proximity to a lee-shore than one 



NARRATIVE. 59 

would think prudent under the circumstances, yet our men dipped 
confidently on, and never ceased their chatter or their laugh for a 
moment, even when the bow man occasionally got a wet jacket from a 
wave that broke too soon. In truth, they had such perfect command 
of the canoe, that their course 'was no doubt the safest, for not 
only did we thus get some partial shelter from an occasional rock or 
point, but also the force of the wind was deadened by the nearness of 
the chflF. 

At the little beach before spoken of, we stopped to rest. Here 
was an abundance of Labrador tea in blossom, Pinguicula, and Poten- 
tilla fruticosa. A rapid stream came in at the centre of the beach, 
about the mouth of which were multitudes of brook trout ; some were 
caught, being the first that we had seen since leaving the Sault, 
although they were said to be numerous in all the streams. Beyond 
this, we found the rocks along the water much grooved and polished ; 
one groove, about six inches deep, I traced for some twenty feet. 

A sudden exclamation from the men, as we passed a deep narrow 
cleft, called our attention, but too late to see what they maintained 
they saw, namely, a quantity of snow at the bottom of the chasm. 
This seemed at first impossible in this burning July weather, with the 
thermometer about 80° at noon ; but on reflection, this chasm, open 
to the N. W., must doubtless be filled with some hundred feet of 
snow in the winter, and the sun can never penetrate into it for a mo- 
ment, so that the process of melting in the short summer must be slow. 
And then the summer was after all but just set in ; Gov. Simpson, 
if I remember rightly, found the lake full of ice about the first of 
June. 

We came in sight of the bottom of the bay, a wide and high sand- 
beach about a mile in length, but seeing nothing of the river, we 
approached a dark object on the beach, ( which we had ascertained 
to be an Indian squatting on the sand ) to make inquiries, but he 
retreated rapidly, and we had to coast for some distance, before we 
discovered the entrance. ^ 

Michipicotm River, a rapid stream of clear dark brown water, 
some two hundred yards wide, here cuts through the beach at right 
angles, leaving a somewhat projecting sand spit on the south. The 
name Michipicotin was declared by some of the men to signify " Big 



60 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Sandy Bay," certainly quite descriptive of the place, but they were 
not unanimous, some of them maintaining that nobody could say what 
it meant. It was a pretty hard pull to the factory, half a mile up on 
the left bank. Our approach had been already announced, probably 
by the Indian whom we saw on the beach, and we found Mr. Swanston, 
the gentleman in charge, at the landing when we arrived. He received 
us kindly, and showed us where to pitch our tents, in an open sandy 
space behind the factory, surrounded by whitewashed cabins, and the 
birch-bark lodges of the Indians. A large seine was suspended 
from a series of poles, and, near the water, a platform for dressing 
and packing fish. 

This open space was bounded on the west by a steep ridge of 
stratified sand and gravel, some sixty feet high, cut through by the 
present channel of the river, and also by an ancient, now deserted 
channel further south. The river just above the factory takes a 
sharp turn to the north, doubling back in a direction nearly parallel 
to its course below. The interval between the factory and the lake, 
is thus a peninsula, the base of which is cut across by the former chan- 
nel. It is evidently a range of sand-dunes, thrown up by the winds and 
waves, so as to divert the stream from a direct passage to the lake, 
to a course for some distance nearly parallel with it. From its mouth, 
to the Falls, it is a series of abrupt windings, though its general 
direction is straight ; indicating, the Professor said, a bay repeatedly 
closed by sand-bars, one outside of the other, and successively cut 
through by the river. It evinced, he said, a contest between the 
river and the lake, beginning at a time when the level of the 
water was somewhat higher than at present. 

Michipicotin is the principal post of the Hudson's Bay Co. in 
this district. From it, the other posts are supplied, and the line of 
communication with Hudson's Bay passes through here. It is six- 
teen days' journey up Michipicotin and Moose Rivers to James' Bay. 

The agent's house is a little one-story cottage, uncarpeted, un- 
painted, and if my memory serves me aright, even unplastered, with 
panelling and projecting beams of pine, colored only by age ; yet by 
no means uncomfortable in its aspectv The casings of darkened 
wood, the heavy beams of the ceiling and cornice, the ancient 



NARKATIVE. 61 

unpainted settle, and the wide niche for the capacious stove, now 
stowed away for the summer, had all a cosy and liveable look. And 
Mr. Swanston, although he had inhabited this wild country in the 
service of the H. B. C, at one or another of their posts, over twenty 
years, yet for anything in his manner or appearance (unless it were 
that he wore moccasins instead of slippers ) might have left the pave- 
ment of Fenchurch Street only yesterday. 

The life at these posts is a very quiet, and, doubtless, monotonous 
one ; busy during the seasons when the hunters come for their sup- 
plies, or to bring in their furs ; at other times, with only the fish 
to be seen to when the nets are drawn in the morning, some to 
be cleaned and salted, if there is a good haul, and perhaps put into 
barrels to be sent to the Sault. An arrival from some other post, a 
straggling party of explorers for copper, and above all, an occasional 
packet of newspapers from below, — these are the great events. In 
such a Ufe, a man changes slowly, but gathers moss in another sense 
than that of the proverb. 

A few hundred yards above the factory are very pretty falls, on 
the Magpie River, * which here empties into the main stream. Two 
miles up there was said to be a fine cascade, and a still more re- 
markable one fifteen miles up, which could be reached by a short 
cut of six miles by land. 

Neither the love of the picturesque however, nor the interests of 
science, could tempt us into the woods, so terrible were the black flies. 
This pest of flies, which all the way hither had confined our ramblings 
on shore pretty closely to the rocks and the beach, and had been grow- 
ing constantly worse and worse, here reached its climax. Although 
detained nearly two days, in order to supply the place of the 
Professor's canoe, (too small for his accommodation, and moreover 
rotten and unserviceable,) with a larger and fresh one, which had 
first to be put in order, — yet we could only sit with folded hands, or 
employ ourselves in arranging specimens, and such other occupations 
as could be pursued in camp, and under the protection of a 

*The magpie of these regions, bye the bye, is no magpie at all, but a jay {Garruhis 
Canadensis), the " moose-bird" or " carrion-bird " of our lumberers ; a confusion that 
might lead to error as to the range of the American magpie. 



62 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

"smudge."* One, whom scientific ardor tempted a little way up 
the river in a canoe, after water-plants, came back a frightful spec- 
tacle, with blood-red rings round his eyes, his face bloody, and covered 
with punctures. The next morning his head and neck were swollen 
as if from an attack of erysipelas. Mr. S. said he had never seen 
the flies so thick. Year before last there were hardly any ; last year 
.they increased very much, and this season went beyond all his ex- 
perience in this region. He consoled us, however, by the information, 
that it was nothing to what they have further north. On Macken- 
zie's River, the brigades are sometimes stopped by the musquitoes, and 
very often are able to advance only by having fires in the canoe. 

The little plain on which we were thus collected, presented a stir- 
ring scene, with the buildings of the factory, the lodges, the white 
tents, the figures crossing from one fire to another, the half-starved 
Indian dogs prowUng about to pick up anything loose, and the Indian 
women and children staring at the unwonted spectacle. The dogs 
were small, and fox-like in their appearance, and perhaps take rather 
after the foxes, since they bark, (contrary to what is said of Indian 
dogs in general,) and like them in a high key. Even the crying of 
the children had a wild, animal sound, resembling the barking of the 
dogs. A bull and some cows, (N. B. Mr. Swanston sent us fresh 
butter and milk, for tea,) and a robin hopping along the ground with 
an occasional chirrup, gave it by comparison quite a home look. 

The hunters were most of them in the woods making canoes, and 
preparing for the winter campaign. In August they come for sup- 
plies of ammunition, &c.,and are gone until the weather becomes too 
severe to be endured abroad. This is usually in January, but some- 
times they do not come in until March. 

According to Mr. S. they generally remain attached to the post 
of the district where they are born, obtaining their supplies on credit 
and paying for them in skins. It is said that they are very 
scrupulous about discharging their debts, and although they some- 
times have credit for over ,£100 currency, yet these wild fellows, 
whose notions of morality seem in most points so loose, and in the 

* Readers familiar with the Maine or New Hampshire woods, will know that a smudge 
means a smoke made to drive away the flies. Green evergreen boughs, or damp lichen 
thrown on the fire will make a good smudge. 



NARRATIVE. 63 

midst of the wilderness, beyond the reach of all compulsion, — rarely 
or never neglect to pay every fai'thing. Their sense of honor 
among themselves, too, seems, in some points at least, acute. We 
were told that if an Indian finds a beaver-lodge, he cautiously traps 
a beaver or two, and then leaves them alone for the season, since 
otherwise the animals would forsake the place altogether. This he 
does year after year in perfect security that no one will meddle with 
them after he has proclaimed his discovery, and it is said that a 
beaver-lodge sometimes descends thus from father to son. 

July 8th. — Being in Mr. S.'s room this morning, a hunter came 
in from the woods to get a supply of tobacco, Avhich, with ammuni- 
tion and apparatus for making fire, are the hunter's indispensables, 
and are never refused them. His first words (in Indian, for he 
understood no English,) were an exclamation at the astonishing 
quantity of flies. 

Happening to be in want of a tobacco-bag, I made a proposal 
through Mr. S. for a rather ornamental one, (of broadcloth of various 
colors, with hanging tassels, and worked with beads,) which the 
Indian wore at his girdle. He signified his acquiescence, and 
handed me the pouch ; but when in return I gave him a five franc 
piece, he eyed it curiously, and bursting into a giggle, asked Mr. 
S. what he should do with it ? Mr. S. satisfied him on this point 
by telling him how much cloth it would buy, whereat he seemed 
satisfied, and requested to have the things out of his pouch. These 
consisted of a quantity of kinni-kmik, and fire apparatus, being 
a small cylinder of wood, hollow at one end, round which was an 
edge of steel. A quantity of the fibrous inner bark of the arbor- 
vitne being placed in the hollow, is ignited by strikmg a stone across 
the mouth. 

So large a number of Indians are collected here, (I think Mr. S. 
said about 150,) that it would seem to be a good opportunity for 
doing something towards civilizing them. There is certainly room 
enough for improvement. They have no church, no schools, no 
marriage ceremony, unless it be in the Indian style, every man 
having as many squaws as he can support. They do not attempt 
any agriculture, but depend on hunting, and when that fails, on the 



64 LAKE SUPEKIOR. 

charity of the traders ; they build no houses but the birch-bark 
lodges of their ancestors. 

Speaking of agriculture, there is an extensive potato patch attached 
to the factory, some of the produce of which we carried with us Avhen 
we left. The potatoes, however, are small, and other vegetables are 
said not to ripen here, on account of the shortness of the summer. 
Yet the winters are not very severe, the quicksilver, Mr. S. said, 
never sinking below — 20^ Fahrenheit. 

The fur trade, he said, was very much on the decline, which 
he ascribed to the use of various substitutes for beaver in making 
hats. The principal furs at this post are lynx, martin, otter and 
beaver. The lynx and the martin are never abundant together. If 
the lynxes are plenty, there are few martins, and vice versa. Prob- 
ably as their prey is similar, the lynx, being the stronger, drives off 
its rival. 

Great quantities of fish are seined here ; white-fish, lake-herring, 
trout, &c., not only enough for the use of this and other posts, but 
also some are sent down to the Sault for sale. The number of white- 
fish annually put up on the whole lake, Mr. Swanston estimated at 
three thousand barrels, worth on an average $5 a barrel. Of these, 
about one thousand barrels are sent away for sale. At Fort Wil- 
liam, about five hundred barrels are taken. Out of some fifty thou- 
sand specimens that he had seen at Fort William, there were two 
with red flesh, like salmon. 

July 9th. — This forenoon the canoe was finished ; the sewing of 
tvattap being renewed throughout, and a fresh coat of gum applied. 
This ivattap is usually said to be spruce roots, but as well as I could 
make out, on this occasion the roots of the ground-hemlock (^Taxas 
canadensis^') were used. 

We had now got thoroughly used to our men, and they to us. 
Our steersman, Henry, whose culinary skill (a prominent qualifica- 
tion of a voyageur,) has been already celebrated, was careful and 
obliging, but rather slow both in wits and senses in comparison with 
John, who, though milieu, was decidedly the genius of the crew. 
This man was Avholly or mostly of Indian blood, and his real name 
an unpronounceable jumble of letters that would take up half a 
line. No hawk's eye was ever keener than his ; nothing escaped it ; 



NARRATIVE. 65 

nothing was too distant for it to make out. A wiry, sinewy fellow, 
of astonishing strength and endurance, and always on the watch for 
dangers above and below the water, but his chatter and his merriment 
were unceasing ; he laughed more than all the rest, and made all the 
jokes beside. Henry spoke English in a very deliberate and rather 
inarticulate tone, having probably a diplomatic dread of committing 
himself by blunders in grammar. John understood no English nor 
French, but he knew instantly what you wanted, and did not often 
need even the assistance of pantomime. 

They were all thoroughly practised in their craft ; not only as to 
the navigation of the canoe, but also in doing and contriving every 
thing needful to our comfort. When we landed they waded into the 
water to carry us ashore on their backs, (for except where a rock 
projected favorably, the canoe could never be brought near enough 
to step ashore dry-shod,) then carefully lifted the canoe on to the 
beach, and after taking out its contents, turned it bottom up. Next, 
a good spot being selected, the tent was pitched, and drift-wood (of 
which there is generally an abundance at hand,) collected in 
good supply. This occasioned sometimes a good deal of good-natured 
rivalry among the various crews, the men of each boat considering 
their interests identified with those of their bourgeois, and accord- 
ingly making haste to pounce upon the best logs and the softest 
camping-ground. This was generally at the top of the beach, to 
secure level ground, and moss where there was any. Then they 
brought up from the water whatever things they observed we liked 
to have in the tent, to one his gun, to another his insect-net, and car- 
pet-bags and bedding for all. In the morning, unless we were up of 
our own accord, we were aroused by their " emhai-quez, embarquez,'" 
and wo to him who lingered many minutes after this warning, for he 
was sure to find the tent tumbling about his ears without further 
preface, and his loose efiects transported to the canoe by these inex- 
orable fellows. 

For this is remarkable about these men, that obliging and respect- 
ful as they are in general, there are certain things for which they 
stand out, and will have their way. John, for instance, though the 
best fellow in the world, would never allow the due sweep of his oar 
to be obstructed even by an inch, and any one whose back or head 



66 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

came in the way, was reminded of the impropriety by a dig from the 
end of it at every stroke, until he withdrew within his proper limits. 
About these matters, (which, however, were confined entirely to the 
management of the boat, &c., and respected exclusively the public 
interests,) they never argued nor attended to arguments, but quietly 
persisted in doing as they thought proper. 

The immediate shore on our course this afternoon, was lower than 
we had had it since leaving Gros-Cap ; rounded, gradual slopes of 
rock down to the water, bare in some places, and the rest covered 
with a scanty growth of trees. At some distance back, rounded hills 
rose to a greater height. 

We were struck here and elsewhere by the regular succession of 
coves and points, owing apparently to the trap-dykes, which, in-^tead 
of being more easily decomposed than the surrounding rock, and thus 
forming chasms, as on the other side of the bay, were here harder, 
and so stood out from the rest.* 

At several places we observed terraces, and carried two of them, 
at various heights, but preserving their relative positions, about two 
miles, to the Riv. a la Chienne, where they turned up the valley and 
extended along its left bank as far as we could see, having an eleva- 
tion of about two hundred feet. Here, according to intention, we 
encamped at sunset, fifteen miles from our starting place. This 
river is deep, and about ten fathoms wide, umber-colored as usual, 
with a broad expansion inside, which, with the wideness of the 
valley and the scanty growth on the terraces (doubtless of sand) 
forming its left bank, permitted an extensive view up the stream 
into an amphitheatre of high rounded hills, behind which the sun was 
setting. There are rapids and a fall of about ten feet a quarter of 
a mile up. We pitched our tents on a spit of sand, broad at the base, 
and running out in a point across the mouth of the stream to witliin 
a few yards of the steep rock of the right bank. Just inside the 
point, the bottom sunk sheer down twenty feet. Outside there is 
a bar, having only a few feet of water on it. 

One of the men collecting firewood on the bank found a bear's 

* This contrast between the different dykes induced the Professor to examine into 
their relative ages, and thus led to the views set forth in the paper on the Outlines of 
the Lake. 



NARRATIVE. 67 

skull, with two shoulder-blades and some vertebrae, stuck in the 
crotch of a tree. The jaws were very neatly bound together with 
tvattap^ and the bones painted with broad stripes of black and ver- 
million. Inside of the skull was some tobacco, plugged in with birch 
bark. This is said to be a common token of an Indian grave, mark- 
ing the dead as a brave hunter. On the bank above were remains 
of an Indian lodge. 

July 10th. — Very cool this morning. The rocks on our course 
uniformly sloping south-west to the water, in consequence, the Profes- 
sor said, of glacial action. He explained that in order to form satis- 
factory evidence of the action of ice, it was necessary that the slopes 
and the rounding and scratching of the surface should have a direc- 
tion different from the stratij&cation of the rock. 

We passed this morning several mining " locations," indicated by 
poles set up on the rocks. At " Les Ecrits " were rude pictures of 
canoes, caribou, horses, snakes, &c., cut out of the black lichens, on 
a perpendicular face of rock. We stopped to lunch at a rocky point 
forming a shelf nearly level with the water, which was thirty 
feet deep alongside. To this the canoes were moored by a moun- 
tain-ash sapling at head and stern, the small end tied to the 
canoe, and the large end loaded with large stones* One of the men 
shot a spruce partridge, (^Tetrao canadensis^ the first we had seen, 
though they are said to be abundant here. 

I cHmbed up the point, and on the top entered a thick growth of 
shrubs, Labrador tea, and various species of Yaccinium. The whole 
surface of the ground was covered with rich green moss (^SpJiac/nuni), 
spreading over the loose rocks a uniform velvet carpet, into which 
I several times sunk to my middle. Larches began to appear. The 
woods much like those of northern New England, except the prom- 
inence of the lichens and mosses here, and the smaller size of the 
trees. Contrary to my expectation, and to what had been told me of 
the country, the forests are not remarkably dense, and there is rarely 
any difficulty in penetrating, except in the cedar swamps. The 
ground is generally rough, since it is, in fact, the broken slope of the 
lake shore. We never penetrated far into the interior, which is said 
to be in general thinly wooded. The most striking feature of these 
woods is their stillness and loneliness, though as to this the season must 



68 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

be taken into account. Even in Massachusetts, in July and August, 
there are comparatively few birds to be seen or heard, and travel- 
lers, among others Prince Max of Neuwied, (who is a naturalist to 
boot,) have founded on this fact very false conclusions as to the 
scarcity of birds in the United States. The truth is that owing per- 
haps to the absence of marked climatic divisions, the birds of this 
country extend their migration very far, so that any such comparison 
should be made in spring or fall. Then much allowance must be 
made for the change wrought by civilization. Birds and animals 
(except the carnivorous ones,) always increase about settlements ; 
a well-known fact which our experience confirmed, for about the posts, 
and at the Sault, both were always more numerous than elsewhere. 
In Chicago, a few years ago, a gentleman told me that the grouse 
and quails had increased in that neighborhood eight-fold within his 
recollection ; I myself saw numbers of quails in the main street and 
on the houses, and was assured that they sometimes entered the shops. 
The cause is simply the increase of food. Even deer continue to 
increase for sojne time about settlements. 

The shore now became higher and more precipitous, until at Les 
Ecourts, marked on Bayfield's chart, " no landing for boats," the 
cliifs of sienite rose to the height of eight hundred feet above the 
lake. Here were swarms of swallows, and a pair of sparrow-hawks, 
the invariable inhabitants of these cliffs. Michipicotin Island was now 
plainly visible to the south, distant about ten miles. We had intended 
to take it on our way, but decided to put this off until our return. 

The sunset was beautiful, but autumnal ; the clouds in large well- 
defined masses, tinged with a suffused roseate hue. Afterwards the 
air became cool. It was nine o'clock when we encamped, on a 
beach just inside of Otter Head. The bateau, which had detained 
us much during the day, remained behind at dark. The " Dancing 
Feather," on the other hand, had the start of our two canoes, and 
went round the Head. 

The beach where we landed rose some twenty feet from a narrow 
margin on the water, at an angle of twenty to thirty degrees. The 
little semi-circular plateau above seemed by the dim light to be sur- 
rounded on all sides by a dense forest. In stumbling about after 
drift-wood, we made the discovery that the upper part of the beach 



NARRATIVE. 69 

was strewn with lichens, in large tufts or clods, often eight to ten 
inches deep by eighteen inches to two feet across ; a few armfuls of 
this made a very comfortable bed. After the sunset faded, the 
moon shone out brilliantly, and we sat on the edge of the slope talk- 
ing of many things, long after our men were snoring comfortably 
under the shelter of the canoes below. 

July llth. — Daylight showed us that our plateau was a niche cut 
in the rock, which rose steeply and with great regularity from all 
sides, fringed and covered with trees. We rounded the point of 
Otfer Head, so called from an upright parallelogram of rock, (hav- 
ing, however, so far as I could see, no particular resemblance to the 
head of an otter,) resting on the top of the point, and, joining the 
" Dancing Feather " at breakfast time, we put ashore and decided 
to wait for the bateau. On the way a solitary Indian, excessively 
dirty and ragged, came off in his canoe to sell us fish, and turned 
out to be the hrotlier-m-law of one of our men, a very decent-look- 
ing Canadian Frenchman. 

The woods here also carpeted with moss, and sprinkled with Linnsea 
and bunch-berry ; here also we found very few flies, and began 
to give some credence to the assertion of some of the men, that they 
disappear towards the end of this month. Perhaps the change of 
temperature may render them sluggish, for we had now crossed the 
48th degree of latitude, and the greatest heat of summer, in these 
northern regions coinciding more nearly with the solstice, was now 
past. 

One of my companions and myself making the circuit of a muddy 
pond, formed by the damming up of a small stream by the lake beach, 
incautiously attempted to return through a patch of burnt arbor 
vitoes. It is difficult to persuade one's self at a short distance that 
these burnt places are so impracticable as they really are, even though 
one may have had full experience of them before. You can see 
through the trees every where, and the ground is plainly visible 
among the stumps. But when fairly engaged, you find the fallen 
trunks are piled together in such wild confusion that you seldom touch 
the ground at all, but are obliged to get along squirrel fashion (only 
not so quickly and easily), by climbing and jumping from one log to 
another. Moreover the eftect of the fire is not at all uniform ; some 



70 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

of the wood, without much change of the outside, is converted into 
mere punk, so that if you step on it you are precipitated among the 
charred logs, and in your passage made feelingly aware that many 
of the small branches and ends have been merely sharpened and 
hardened by it into spikes. So slow and laborious was our progress 
that, having with great difficulty made my way to the edge of the 
pond, I waded along, with the water up to my middle, in several 
inches of mud, as far as the fallen trees would allow, rather than take 
to the bank. We were about twenty minutes in making less than a 
quarter of a mile, and my companion assured me that once on the south 
shore of the lake it took him a whole day of hard work to get over 
seven miles of this ground. 

The shore now became very varied and broken ; not very abrupt, but 
rounded hills and points of considerable size coming successively in 
sight, and on the water-side numerous picturesque wooded islets of 
granite, with abrupt faces towards the south, and polished and round- 
ed slopes northward. Wide trap-dykes in the reddish sienite rock 
all ground down to an even surface. The wind blew in puffs from 
the N. W., alternating with dead calms. The fluctuation of temper- 
ature was astonishing. So long as it was calm, the unclouded sun 
beat down upon us with all the fervor of our own July, but the mo- 
ment the wind sprung up it was October. 

Evening coming on, the bateau and the " Dancing Feather" en- 
camped, but we in the other two canoes decided to keep on to the Pic 
(Peek), which was only ten miles off. Not that we were particularly 
anxious to get on, but having hitherto taken the journey rather leisurely 
we thought the men seemed inclined to take advantage of our good 
nature. So after tea we started again, the moon shining brightly 
and the sunset just fading away. 

The Northern Lights, visible to some extent almost nightly, were 
unusually beautiful this evening, forming three concentric bows in 
the north, the upper one about thirty degrees from the horizon. From 
this bow as a base sprang up long flickering streamers quite to 
the zenith, where there was aflecky appearance, as if of light clouds, 
which, however, were stationary. Hence radiated tremulous flashes 
of light toward every point of the compass. 

We reached the Pic about one o'clock, the moon down, and no 



NAKRATIVE. 71 

objects discernible except some Indians and their dogs, and the indis- 
tinct forms of their lodges on the beach. 

July 12th. — Before we were stirring this morning, our friends of 
the " Dancing Feather" made their appearance, and we learned to 
our surprise that they had been encamped for some time and had 
already finished their breakfast. The fact was their voyageurs were 
a little piqued at our having pushed on ahead of them, and were 
resolved we should not gain any advantage by it. So getting up 
very early they came up with all speed, and silently passing the spot 
where we were encamped, pitched their tent at some distance beyond, 
and made haste to get breakfast before we were up. 

The Pic is a post of the Hudson's Bay Company ; the smallest 
of the three on the lake* ; the name is derived not as we at first 
supposed, from the pointed hills across the river, but from an Indian 
word, PeeJc or NeepeeJc, signifying, I believe, " dirty water." The 
same word occurs in Neepeegon. It is situated near the movith of a 
rather sluggish stream of turbid, brown water, about two hundred 
and fifty yards broad, flowing through a valley, wide near its mouth 
and narrowing higher up, apparently a delta of the river. There 
are considerable falls at some distance up the river. A sand-bar, on 
which there are six feet of water, extends across its mouth, and par- 
ticularly on the northern side there is a very broad beach of white 
sand, like that of the sea-shore, drifted into hills, and at the top of 
the beach into a high ridge or dune, like that at Michipicotin, but 
smaller, whence there is a steep descent into the pitch-pine woods 
behind the post. Near the beach is a remarkable dyke of pitchstone. 

The establishment consists of a number of whitewashed red-trimmed 
buildings of one story, like the fishermen's cottages of our coast, rang- 
ed round a hollow square and surrounded by a high palisade. The 

* The following lists of the furs obtained for the two last years, as given by Mr. 
Beggs to one of the gentlemen who remained behind here, may be of some value as an. 
indication of the relative abundance of the different species: — 1847, — bears, 21, beavers, 

125, lynxes, 237, fishers, 83, cross foxes, 6, red do., 18, silver do., 3, martins, 710, minks, 
297, musk-rats, 2,450, otters, 137, wolverine, 1, ermines, 32. — 1848, — ^bears, 20, beavers, 

126, lynxes, 61, fishers, 66, red foxes, 6, white foxes, 6, martins, 1,167, minks, 402, 
musk-rats, 1,999, otters, 179, ermines, 118. The inverse proportions of lynxes and mar- 
tins confirm what Mr. Swanston said. It is to be observed that the number of hunters 
is much smaller here than at either of the other posts. 



72 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

ground inside of this courtyard is covered -with plank, and a plank 
road, also enclosed by a palisade, leads up the slope from the river 
to the gate-way, which is surmounted by a sort of barbican. 

July loth. — There was a dense mist and an easterly wind this 
morning, much like one of our chilly sea-fogs. This was the first in- 
stance of fog after sunrise we had met with on the lake, though it was 
often foggy early in the morning. The air was never colder than the 
water, so that condensation could take place only when the saturated 
atmosphere was cooled by the lake, unresisted by the action of the 
sun, that is, before sunrise. That the air was full of moisture 
seemed to be shown by the fact that we could often see our breath 
when the air was by no means cold, the atmosphere being so charged 
with moisture as to raise the dew point, or degree of temperature at 
which the vapor becomes visible, unusually high. 

Tlie pitch-pine woods behmd the post had been burnt over, and 
the trees, though yet standing, were mostly dead, affording food for 
myriads of wood-beetles, QMonohamus scutellaris,^ whose creaking 
resounded on all sides. These in their turn were fed upon by the 
Canada jays, and by two rare species of woodpeckers, (P. arcticiis, 
and P. hirsutus.') The arcticiis in particular was very abundant 
and noisy, having a shrill, startling cry. 

The Professor got a number of fishes, among others a brilliant 
green pickerel, a new species. A sturgeon was caught in the river 
opposite our tent, in a net belonging to one of the Indians, who dis- 
patched him after some contest, with a fish-spear. Prof. Agassiz re- 
quested me to make a sketch of this fish, which was some four or five 
feet long. This took some time, and meanwhile we observed that all 
the inhabitants of the lodge to which it belonged were assembled and 
crouching in a row in front of us. We supposed this to be mere curi- 
osity, but one of our men happening to come up, discovered that 
the whole family had been without food all day, and were waiting 
to eat the fish as soon as we were done with it. We were shock- 
ed at having committed such a breach of propriety, but the sketch 
not being finished, we proposed to them to lunch meanwhile on some 
of our pork and biscuit, to which they readily agreed. 

Jul// l-ith. — Started this morning with a strong head wind. We 
were obliged to leave behind one of our number, who had been ailing 



NARKATIVE. 73 

with a feverish attack ever since Mica Bay, and was now pro- 
nounced by the medical men too ill to proceed. Fortunately we were 
able to leave him in good hands. One of the party volunteered to 
stay with him, and Mr. and Mrs. Beggs gave him the best accommo- 
dation the post afforded. 

This was the only case of sickness during our excursion, although 
the mode of life was quite new to most of us, and some degree of hard- 
ship was anticipated. But speaking for myself, the only serious in- 
convenience was the scorching heat of the sun, which severely blis- 
tered the skin wherever exposed. 

Our course this forenoon fortunately lay through a labyrinth of 
islands, by which we avoided the force of the wind somewhat. Just 
after leaving the Pic we passed through a river-like channel, about 
fifteen feet wide, the steep sides of which were deeply scored in a di- 
rection diagonal to the chasm, showing, the Prof, said, that the body 
by which the marks were made, had a momentum sufficient to disre- 
gard the shape of the ground over which it passed. The strise here- 
abouts were inclined at an angle of 39° with the surface of the 
water. 

We stopped for lunch on a point covered with Vaccinium uligino- 
sum, and similar shrubs. The slimy water-plants floating along this 
point were filled Avith astonishing numbers of drowned insects, and 
many fine specimens were obtained. From here it was neces- 
sary to make a traverse of some three or four miles with quite as 
much wind as we could stand up to. This brought us into a cluster 
of islets abreast of Pic Island, a fine bold peak seven or eight hun- 
dred feet high, stretching off into a rocky ridge. The whole skeleton ' 
and structure of the peak were distinctly visible, from the effects of 
a fire that had streamed up the side of the mountain from a cove 
on the north, where there is a camping-ground. The Indians and 
voyageurs in their carelessness and wantonness allow their camp-fires 
to extend into the woods, which on these rocky slopes are dry and 
inflammable. The consequence is that the foliage of the trees being 
destroyed and their roots killed, they no longer hold together the soil, 
and it is accordingly swept off by the next rains, leaving a clean sur- 
face of white, calcined rock for Nature to cover again in the course 

of ages, by the slow succession of lichens, shrubs and trees. 
6 



74 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

While passing this island, two canoes came in sight from the op- 
posite direction, evidently making a wide traverse for the Pic. They 
passed rapidly along under sail too far oiT to be spoken, but we had 
no doubt that it was Gov. Simpson of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
who was expected at the Pic on his annual tour. We afterwards 
learned that this conjecture was correct, and that he arrived about 
eight o'clock that evening, thus making in three hours (for it was 
about five when we passed them,) what we had taken all day for. 

The Governor is much noted for his rapid travelling. On one 
occasion he is said to have dined one day at the Sault, and break- 
fasted the next at Michipicotin, a distance of one hundred and twenty 
miles. We encamped this evening on a most picturesque rocky islet 
near the shore, where- we slept on natural beds of solid moss and 
huckleberry bushes, a foot deep. 

July 15th. — Rain early this morning, but cleared away cold, with 
an autumnal sky and high wind. We passed the Slate Islands, high 
and blue, at the distance of seven or eight miles, and ran into a 

fcove, at the bottom of which opened what seemed to be a well-ordered 
lawn, with balsam firs and larches judiciously disposed at intervals. 
In landing, the rich green grass turned out to be bear-beri'y, and 
the soil mere sand, which the bear-berry loves, but which accounted 
for the scantiness of trees. 

The woods were crossed and recrossed in every direction by rabbit 
(or rather hare) paths, and we saw some trails that some of us fan- 
cied might be caribous', with many tracks of a dog or wolf. Caribous 
are found all through this region, but not in great abundance. An 
Indian who passed last winter on Isle St. Ignace, killed twenty-five 
caribous in the course of the winter, and was thought to have done 
very well. We saw here, for the first time, Parus hudsonicus, in 
company with a number of its cousins, the chickadees, from which it 
was to be distinguished only by its brown head, its slenderer and 
higher note, and a slight difibrence in habit, fluttering more about the 
ends of the twigs. 

We made a long stay here, and some of the men amused themselves 
with lighting a fire, which unfortunately ran along the ridge of the 
beach, and, in spite of their utmost exertions, marched with a broad 
front into the woods. It was an exciting spectacle, the eagerness of 



NARRATIVE. 75 

the flames to seize upon each fresh tree, winding round it hke ser- 
pents, crackling and rushing furiously through its branches to the 
top, until every fragment of dry bark, lichen, &c., was consumed. 
The fire seems too dainty to take the more solid parts, and so, for 
instance, the bunch of upright cones at the top of the balsams, re- 
mains distinguishable in the forest as a blackened tuft. Our beautiful 
bear-berry lawn looked now more like a peat-bog. When we left, 
the fire was in full progress, and was proba^bly stayed only by a 
swamp beyond. 

Nature, however, generally provides that no land that can be of 
much value to man shall be subject to this fate, for the heavily-tim- 
bered (and thus fertile) land of these latitudes is mostly too wet to 
burn, except the solitary birches, which if you set a torch to them, 
go off like rockets, but do not set fire to the other trees. 

We passed terraces several times to-day, and in one place in par- 
ticular, on a grand scale at the bottom of a bay, forming a series of 
vast unbroken arcs of about a mile chord, ascending one above the 
other to the height of several hundred feet, and, from the scantiness 
of the vegetation, evidently compjosed of sand. 

Camped on a beach of coarse, dark sand, under a high abrupt prom- 
ontory, enclosing it with precipitous walls. Among the rocks in our 
neighborhood were discovered veins of copper, suggesting to the Pro- 
fessor some remarks, which he illustrated on his black canvas, 
pinned against the side of his tent : 

" Veins are formed sometimes by the cracking of igneous rocks as they 
cool; sometimes also by the subsidence of strata; cracks being formed, are 
filled from the melted mass below, pressed upon by sinking strata and 
thus forced upwards, or thrown up by other causes. The injected mass, 
even though originally the same as that into which it penetrates, may yet pro- 
duce a vein of a different character, from the difference of cooling. Where 
the injected mass is very great it alters the surrounding rock, more or less 
in proportion to its vicinity to the melted substance. In these metamorphic 
rocks, as they are called, such as we have seen in great abundance 
throughout our passage along the lake shore, there is accordingly the 
greatest variety of character, and one species of rock passes into a,nother by 
so many intermediate forms that it is often difficult to say what name should 
be given to it, the rock, originally sandstone, perhaps, with various admix- 



76 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

tures, being changed into sienite or porphyiy, or into rock partaking in 
various degrees of the characters of both, by the influence of large veins of 
melted materials. Metallic veins are sometimes formed in the same way, 
by injection, and they also in the same manner modify the surrounding rock, 
as in the instance before us. Sometimes, also, they are formed by sublima- 
tion into crevices, or by electro-magnetic action, causing an interchange of 
particles between various parts of the rock." 

e 

July IQth. — Early this forenoon the Island of St. Ignace ap- 
peared looming up in the distance. We passed the " Petits 
Ecrits," a rock ornamented with representations of various ani- 
mals, canoes full o^ men, &c., together with various fabulous mon- 
sters, such as snakes with wings, and the like, cut out of the 
lichens ^ the work of the Indians, or perhaps of stray miners or search- 
ers for copper, who, as appeared by dates and initials, have adopted 
from them this mode of attracting the attention of the passer-by. 
These pictures were of various dates, as was shown by the various de- 
grees of distinctness, as the rock was either quite laid bare, or the black 
lichens had more or less completely recovered possession of it. We 
now entered the vast archipelago of islands occupying the whole 
N. W. corner of the lake, as far as Pigeon River, a distance of about 
two and a half degrees of longitude, viz. : from 87° 30 ' to 90° W. 
It is difficult to convey any notion of the vast number of islets and 
rocks in this part of the lake. Capt. Bayfield in his (unpublished) 
chart of Lake Huron, is said to have laid down thirty-six thousand 
islands, on twenty thousand of which he has landed ; the number in 
Lake Superior cannot, I should suppose, fall much short of this. In 
both lakes the islands lie almost exclusively along the northern and 
eastern shores. In Lake Superior, Avith the exception of the group 
called the Apostle's Islands, there are very few islands on the south 
shore, or on the north-west shore beyond Pigeon River. In Lake 
Huron there is scarcely an island outside the Georgian Bay, and in 
the lower lakes islands are almost entirely w^anting. 

As we were passing under an overhanging cliff where nests of the 
barn-swallow were niched into the rock within reach of the hand, 
an Indian in his canoe with his squaw and child suddenly glided 
alongside from some cove, and offered fish in exchange for tobacco. 



NARRATIVE. 77 

He was a huge fellow, with a great head, covered with dishevelled hair, 
yet not ill-shapen, and having something of the picturesqueness of a 
bowlder of granite. The woman had on a sort of cloak of white hare- 
skins, with a hood attached, which was drawn up over her head. Some- 
body gave the man a cigar, and showed him which end to put into his 
mouth and how to light it, which he did, and smoked away very clev- 
erly. Signs were made to him to give the woman a puff, but she un- 
luckily put the lighted end into her mouth, and after that good- 
naturedly but firmly declined to have anything to do with these new- 
fangled pipes. 

The wind meantime had risen, and coming out from the lee of the 
islands into an open bay, we found the head wind and sea too strong 
to be contended with, and so put back into a cove, the entrance of 
which we had just passed. Passing through a narrow strait we came 
into a quiet bay that seemed like a land-locked lagoon, but was in 
fact separated from the lake only by a couple of islands. The sides 
of the cove rose steeply from the water's edge with only a narrow 
circlet of sand between the water and the trees, in some places hardly 
leaving room to pass outside. Thus protected, the little bay, with its 
fringe of birches and arbor-vitses, as unruffled as some inland pool of 
a still September afternoon, presented a strong contrast with the 
turbulence of the weather without. I climbed up the steep bank, 
which was everywhere covered with deep beds of moss, and penetra- 
ted with some difficulty to the outside of the island, for an island it 
was, and the reader must understand that at the " Petits Ecrits" we 
quitted the shore, which here trends to the northward, and pursued 
a westerly course among the almost continuous islands, intending to 
pass outside of St. Ignace. 

The spruce woods here were very dense, and encumbered with 
fallen birch trunks, as if the spruces had usurped the place of a' 
birch forest. Part way a sort of path was broken, and fresh tracks 
of some large animal, smking a foot deep into the moss ; — prob- 
ably a lynx, as they abound here. Hare tracks in all directions. 
Snares were set in the evening, and two hares caught. The method 
of setting these snares, which is extensively practised by the Indians, 
is this. A well-frequented hare-path being selected, is blocked up 
by a fence of sticks, leaving only a narrow passage over which a 



78 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

running-noose is stretched ; the animal in jumping through gets caught 
by the neck. It is said that they can hardly be made to leave the 
path, and they are thus very easily caught. The Indians rely much 
upon them for support, particularly in winter. 

On the outside of the island were rough beaches of large stones, 
and rocky points against which the waves were beating furiously. 

This evening as we were arranging the musquito-bar in our tent 
(a nice job and one requiring abundance of light), our candle proved 
to be missing, and we supplied its place by piling on the fire a large 
quantity of usnea, which streamed from all the trees. This is 
not an unimportant article in the economy of these regions. There is 
no better material for the packing of specimens ; it makes capital bed- 
dino-, and it is so inflammable that a tree covered with it makes the 
best possible beacon or signal-torch. The Indian women use this as 
well as moss for stuffing the bottom of their portable cradles. 

The wind fell in the course of the night, and there was rain before 
morning. 

July lltJi. — Cloudy and warm. Made a traverse at sunrise of 
three or four miles, and then began again to thread our way through 
endless woody islands of greenstone, often showing vertical sides. 
The main shore was now several miles distant and constantly reced- 
ing in high domed summits. St. Ignace, high in front, black to the 
top with spruce forests ; and a dim, majestic outline in the far distance, 
seeming only to divide one part of the sky from the other, our voya- 
geurs declared to be Thunder Cape, seventy or eighty miles off. The 
ends of all distant points were turned up by the effects of the mirage, 
a very common phenomenon here, owing to the contrast in tempera- 
tures between the air and the water. 

We ran into a narrow bay on the east end of St. Ignace, the bot- 
tom of which approached a peak marked on Bayfield's chart as thir- 
teen hundred feet above the lake. This bay is a quiet little nook, 
hedged around with larches and other trees, over whose tops appeared 
the peak. A small clearing had been made here, it being a mining 
" location," and on a board fixed to one of the trees was an inscrip- 
tion signifying that the spot had been " taken possession of by the 
Montreal Mining Company, June 5, 1846." They had even gone 
so far as to put up a log-house, yet standing in tolerable repair, 



NARRATIVE. 79 

with a crib for sleeping inside, and " Douglass' Hotel" written on 
a board by the door. This was one of the many places (there are 
several on this island), where works were commenced without any 
proper exploration of the ground, the only indication of ore being 
some veins of calc-spar, which by a too hasty induction was sup- 
posed to be a sure sign of copper. Small quantities of native copper 
were found, but not sufficient to pay for the trouble of getting it. 

After breakfast, the weather being favorable it was decided to make 
the ascent, and we started accordingly, taking a narrow gorge that 
one of the men, who acted as guide, said led to the peak ; but stop- 
ping behind for a moment, I lost the party, and could not distinguish 
the trail amid the multitude of hare-tracks through the woods. I 
shouted, and was answered repeatedly, but the voices were so echoed 
back and forth in the narrow valley, that I could not make out their 
direction, and went back to the camp. 

In the afternoon they returned, reporting a very fatiguing climb, 
the barometer broken, and the flies very troublesome. The black fly 
is fond of high and dry situations, and is always found in greater num- 
bers about the top of a hill than at the foot. They had ascended the 
peak, however, and christened it Mount Cambridge, in case it had 
not already been named. The summit was steep and rocky, the 
rocks pohshed and scratched to the top. Contrary to expectation 
they found no change whatever in the vegetation. 

The woods here were filled with Linn^a, and several species of 
Pyrola. We left at five o'clock, passing outside of the island. 

St. Ignace seems to be a collection of peaks, and in the middle a 
long interrupted ridge, that seemed still higher than Mt. Cambridge. 
We encamped this evening on a long narrow island lying north and 
south, consisting of two beaches meeting in a ridge in the middle, 
and composed of large angular fragments of porphyry with only the 
corners worn off. Each side of the island was ploughed from one 
end to the other with furrows a foot or more in depth, parallel to the 
water. The stones were covered with great clods of lichen, and a 
few mountain-ashes and spruces grew along the dividing ridge. 

July l^th. — Started at sunrise with our India-rubber cloth for a 
sail, the wind being for once favorable. In rounding the end of 
the island we found furrows like those above described, but at right 



80 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

angles with tliem, running across the end of the island. Our course 
lay through long river-like channels, formed bj parallel series of rocks 
and islets. Near evening we passed a number of Indian lodges clus- 
tered on an island, with the usual number of barking dogs and squalid 
children, and hoped to get fish from them, but they had none except 
dried, which is tough and tasteless, in texture and appearance some- 
what resembling parchment. 

In the night it blew hard from the westward, and we waked up in 
some anxiety lest our tent should be capsized, but John was already 
on hand and secured it. 

July 19^/i. — Detained here by the violence of the wind (^degrade, 
the voyageurs call it,) until about three P.M., when we pushed on 
past Point Porphyry, and encamped in a deep narrow bay to the 
northward, stopping on the way to examine an interesting locality 
where altered red sandstone and trap were seen in close contact. 

In the sandstone were ripple-marks and cracks, such as one sees 
in a dry mud-flat. The surface in many places had an oily smooth- 
ness, and in looking down upon it one might easily have taken it for 
1 a bed of red mud just left dry. 

This cove was evidently a favorite camping-ground, from the marks 
of recent fires, and the large number of lodge-poles on the bank. 
Near the water's edge was a quantity of spruce bark, saddled in 
sheets one over the other on a horizontal stick, like the roof of a 
house. We at first took it for a grave, but it afterwards appeared 
that it was only the bark-covering for the lodges, thus disposed in 
order to keep it sound. It rained hard in the night, with thunder 
for the first time on the lake. 

July 20th. — Calm and cloudy. At a distance to the northward 
were two twin hills, called " les mammelons,^^ by the voyageurs, and 
by the Indians, much more aptly, " the Knees." One could easily 
fancy the rest of the gigantic body lying at ease on the plateau, with 
the head to the north, and the knees drawn up in quiet contempla- 
tion of the sky ; perhaps Nanaboujou, or the First Man. 

We soon came in full sight of Thunder Cape, a magnificent ridge, 
' 1,350 feet high, according to Bayfield, running out into the lake 
directly across our path. It is composed of metamorphosed sand- 
stone, the horizontal stratification plainly visible, from a distance, on 



\- 



NARRATIVE. 81 

the face of the vertical wall of basalt-like columns rising out of the 
forest that clings about its base and sides. Near at hand, the hori- 
zontal lines disappear, being in fact rather suggested than clearly 
made out, and only the vertical chasms are seen. As we passed the 
end of the cape we found the ridge narrow and precipitous on both 
sides, forming a wall across the mouth of Thunder Bay. Another 
fragment of this wall we had in the southern ridge of Pie Island, 
on our left. It is continued by the high, narrow islands beyond, 
and repeated in the parallel ridges of Isle Roy ale. 

We stopped to lunch at Hare Island, a little bit of gravel with 
few stunted spruces, but covered with grass and an abundance of 
flowers. We now had before us a traverse of about fourteen miles 
to Fort William, the white buildings of which were visible amid the 
dark swamp across the bay. 

The wind was rising, but we set off", and the boats were soon far 
^ apart. Our canoe and the Professor's made for the southernmost 
entrance of the river on which the post stands, as the nearest, and 
were glad to escape into quiet water from the rough waves of the bay, 
several of which found their way into our boat in spite of all Henry's 
care and skill. The entrance of the river is wide and shallow, en- 
closing a large delta, cut through the middle by the stream, so that 
the river has in fact three mouths, the northern and southern ones 
some two or three miles apart. Some distance outside the mouth 
the water became very shoal, and islands were forming, on which a 
few willows had already taken root. 

The river-water is of the usual dark brown, and tolerably clear. 
The banks swampy, densely wooded, and lined with water-plants, 
among others the elegant heads of the sagittaria, also nuphar, equi- 
setum, bull-rushes, &c. Such was the luxuriance of the vegetation, 
that it reminded one of a swamp in the tropics, rather than of a 
northern river. 

The name of Fort, applied to this post of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, dates from the old days of the Northwest Company, (to whom 
it formerly belonged,) and their quarrels with the Hudson's Bay. 
At that time the place was strong enough to induce Lord Selkirk, 
who came up with hostile intent, to take the trouble to bring with 
him a field-piece, which he planted on the opposite bank of the river, 



82 LAKE SUPERIOK. 

to make them open their doors. In those days a grand annual coun- 
cil of the company was held here, and we hear traditions of banquets, 
and crowds of clerks, and armies of hangers-on of all kinds. But all 
this has now disappeared. The trade has fallen off, the gross re- 
ceipts being now, they say, only about <£600 per annum ; and more- 
over the Northwest is merged in its old rival, and all those troubles at 
an end, so that although the court-yard is surrounded with a palisade, 
and there is a barbican gate-way, as at the Pic, yet these fortifications 
are not very formidable at present ; the, old blockhouse behind is 
falling to pieces, and the banqueting hall has probably been burnt up 
for firewood, at least, we saw nothing there that looked like it. 
Even the little flower-garden opening out of the stone-paved court- 
yard was overgrown with weeds. 

The general arrangement here is much the same as at the other 
posts, only the soil (a yellowish sandy loam) being better,, and the 
climate less severe, the cultivated ground is more extensive, and 
they have a herd of some thirty cows. Sheep also are kept here, 
and several of the dogs were in disgrace, with heavy clogs fastened 
to their necks, for sheep-stealing. As the pasturage on the other 
side of the river is much better than about the Fort, these cows sivim 
across regularly every morning and back in the evening, a distance 
of two or three hundred yards. I was much surprised, the morning 
after our arrival, when the cattle were let out of the yard, to see a 
cow walk down and deliberately take to the water, of her own accord, 
the whole drove following her, swimming with only their noses, horns 
and tails showing above water. An evolution so out of the usual 
habits of the animal, that I could account for it only by supposing it 
to be an ancient custom, established with difficulty at first, on the 
strong compulsion of necessity, and subsequently yielded to from 
force of example by each cow that successively entered the herd. 

The land about the post is low and flat, mostly a larch swamp ; 
a wide gap being broken in the rocky rim of the lake by the 
valley of the Kaministiquia. To the northward the hills retreat to 
the distance of eight or ten miles. Southerly the line is resumed by 
McKay's Mountain, a ridge of greenstone gradually ascending to- 
wards the north-west, to the height of one thousand feet, and there 
broken into an abrupt precipice. 



NARRATIVE. 83 

The post is still an important one, as being the portal to the Red 
River country, Lake Winnipeg, and the north-west, and furnishes 
various supplies to other posts, among other things, of canoes, of 
which some seventy or eighty were lying here in store. It stands 
on the left bank of the northern mouth of the river Kaministiquia, 
about half a mile from the lake. Outside, close to the water, are the 
log-cabins of the Canadians attached to the post, and on the plain 
across the river the birch-bark lodges of the Indian hunters. 

Mr. Mackenzie, the gentleman Hh charge, received us very kindly, 
and handed to us a number of letters and newspapers that had been 
forwarded hither from the Sault, by the propeller, which had come 
up the south shore and touched at Prince's Location, about twenty 
miles west of this. 

July 21st. — Spent the day here. Wild pigeons, cross-bills, and 
ravens about the fort, and partridges in the swamp. Bathed in the 
river ; the bottom muddy, and the water warm. Mr. M. says that 
before a gale from the northward the river falls sometimes eighteen 
inches in twenty-four hours. This they supposed to be owing to a 
heaping up of the water on the southern shore (where these gales 
usually commence,) by the wind, causing a corresponding depression 
on this side. The fact, more accurately described perhaps as a 
difference of atmospheric pressure on the two sides of the lake, was 
afterwards confirmed by several persons. We decided to ascend the 
river as far as the Kakabeka (Kah-kahbeka) Falls, twenty-five miles, 
to-morrow. ]\Ir. Mackenzie kindly offered to go with us, and fur- 
nished us with whatever was necessary for the excursion. 

This evening our men, with some of the employes of the post, had 
a dance in a cabin near the Fort. The music consisted of a squeak- 
ing fiddle, and none of the fair sex honored the assemblage with 
their presence, yet they stamped away half the night with the 
greatest jollity. 

Jidi/ 22d. — We started this morning accordingly, in three canoes, 
Mr. M. following after in a little cockleshell about a dozen feet long. 
The men in the two large canoes were placed two on a seat and furnish- 
ed with paddles instead of oars, and there was a good deal of rivalry 
between them for the first few miles, the paddles dipping with won- 
derful rapidity, so that they looked like a row of tailors sewing 



84 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

against time. I did not time their stroke, but the rate must have 
been upwards of sixty dips per minute, for their common oar-stroke 
was forty-five per minute, and this seemed twice as quick. 

A mile or two up, the river is narrow and the forest closes again 
upon its banks, which are somewhat higher ; the trees larger than 
any we had seen on the lake ; at first mostly aspens, afterwards 
spruce and elm. Five or six miles up, the banks are often thirty or 
forty feet high, and in some places broken away, showing horizontal 
layers of yellow, sandy loam, occasionally interrupted by sand and 
by narrow beds of clay. The margin of the river filled with sagittaria 
and other water-plants. Mr. M. says ducks and geese are very 
abundant here in spring and fall. At present there were only a few 
creek-sheldrakes. 

The course of the river is very winding, and our men cut oif half 
a mile or more in one place, by making a portage through the woods 
from one bend to another. They carried a surprising weight of lug- 
gage, suspended on the back by a portage straps a broad thong of 
leather passed across the forehead. 

For the distance of eleven miles the current is very sluggish. 
Then we came to rapids, where it was thought advisable to get out 
and make our way by land, leaving the men to pole the canoes up. 
We disembarked on a piece of marshy bottom-land, covered with a 
fine growth of elms. After proceeding some distance through rank 
grass and undergrowth, we came to the bluff, which was a very stiff 
fifteen minutes' climb. This brought us on to a table-land covered 
principally with scrub-pine (P. Banlcsiana,') much like our com- 
mon pitch-pine, but more pyramidal in shape, with shorter leaves and 
curious contorted cones. This table-land was dry, sandy, and thinly 
covered with wood, with wide openings covered only by scanty, with- 
ered grass. The fire had been through in several places, and 
here woodpeckers and black flies abounded. This seems, from w^hat 
we heard, to be the general character of the interior, except on the 
water-courses. 

A fast walk of two hours and a half brought us to the river, 
where we waited about an hour before the boats made their appear- 
ance. All of them had touched repeatedly, and received some 
scratches ; one had been obliged to put in to gum up a leak. We 



NARRATIVE. 85 

reembarkcd, but the current was still rapid ; in some places we 
estimated it at six miles per hour. At the Decharge dcs Paresseux 
we again landed, and walked up some hundred yards while the men 
pushed the boats up with poles, which they grasped by the middle, 
using the ends alternately on each side. 

We encamped at sunset, climbing up a steep clay bluff to an open 
spot above, for we could find no landing on a level with the water. 
Very cold in the evening, silencing the swarms of musquitoes that 
greeted us on our first arrival. 

July 28 tZ. — Very cold this morning also, and the dew heavy. 
Even inside of the tent some of the blades of grass were hung with 
dew-drops, and outside every thing was as wet as if from a smart 
shower. Without breakfasting we walked through the dripping 
woods to the Falls. On the way I noticed an old martin-trap, made 
like the eulJieag of our woods, viz. the butt of a sapling arranged to 
fall like a portcullis across the mouth of a hole in which the bait is 
placed. We came out first in an open space, bounded by a broken 
cliif of slate-rock, whence we could hear, but not see the cataract. 
The river here flows between high perpendicular walls of rock, and 
here commences the Portage de la Montague. Following up the 
portage path about a quarter of a mile, we struck off through the thick 
arbor-vitiie woods, guided by the roar of the fall, until we came out 
on an open grassy bank in front of it, and so near that we were drench- 
ed by the spray. 

From where we stood we could look up a long reach of the 
river, down which the stream comes fpaming over a shallow bed, 
thrown up in jets of spray, like the rapids at Niagara. At the brink 
the stream is compressed, and tumbles over in two horseshoe-shaped 
falls, divided in the middle by a perpendicular chimney-like mass of 
rock some feet square, the upper part of which has been partly turn- 
ed round on its base. The entire height of the fall is about one 
hundred and thirty feet, but somewhat filled up by fragments from 
above. Its breadth is about a hundred and fifty yards. 

The rock is clay-slate, the strata dipping two or three degrees south- 
ward, that is, from the fall. Just above the pitch, the slate is broken 
into very regular steps, and the same structure is visible in the face 
of the cascade itself, particularly on the right, from the broken water 



86 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

where they project. On the other side, where the descending sheet 
is less broken, the rich umber color of the stream tinges the foam 
half-way down. 

The niime Kakabeka was explained by some of the men to mean 
" straight down :" i. e., falls par excellence, it being the most consid- 
erable waterfall in this region. 

In the afternoon our friends of the " Dancing Feather," who had 
determined to return to the Sault by way of the south shore, made 
haste to depart, as we had appointed the loth of August to meet at 
the Sault, and they had much the longer way to go. Mr. Macken- 
zie left us at the same time. 

The Professor this afternoon invited some of us to make the at- 
tempt with him to push up the stream as far as a small island at the 
foot of the Falls, in order to see them from below. For a short dis- 
tance we got along very well, taking advantage of a counter-current 
near the opposite bank. Soon, however, this assistance failed us, 
and we were exposed to the full strength of the stream. For a 
moment or so with all the men could do we could only hold our 
own, and then began to go astern, but Jean Ba'tiste caught the 
branch of a tree and checked the boat, and then jumping into the water 
actually dragged her along, the rest straining their utmost with the 
setting poles. The stream here was shallow, and hurried along with 
great force, eddying and spouting into the air over the stones with 
which the bottom is covered. For a moment or two it was a fair 
struggle between muscle and the force of gravitation ; then we got 
under the lee of the island, and without farther difficulty landed on 
the lower end. The island consists merely of a heap of large angu- 
lar stones, with a tuft of bushes in the middle. 

At the upper end we sat down on the rocks, with the falling hill of 
water directly in front of us, its outline against the sky. Our posi- 
tion was a favorable one for feeling the full force of the mass of 
water, but did not command the whole of the fall, each side being 
partially hidden by the projecting cliff. Indeed there is no position 
from which the whole can be taken in at once. 

The distinguishing feature of these falls is variety. In the first 
place each of the two side-falls has worn out for itself a deep semi- 
circular chasm, which, with the foot of the cliff' projecting from below, 



NARRATIVE. 87 

gives the appearance of two horseshoes joining in the middle, as if 
two separate streams had happened to come together here. This 
pecuhar conformation throws the masses of water together in the 
middle, whence they are thrown up again by the resulting force, as if 
shot out of a cannon. The turmoil is farther increased by projecting 
rocks, (perhaps pUes of fragments from above,) which, on the right 
particularly, shoot the water inwards towards the centre, at right 
angles with the course of the river. Then the sharp projecting shelves 
which project, especially on the right side, through the falling sheet, 
cause a succession of little falls in the face of the great one. 

All these pecuharities are due no doubt to the nature of the rock, 
which, dipping shghtly from the fall, and not being underlain by softer 
strata, as at Niagara, its recession is not regular, but depends on the 
accidental dislodgment of blocks on the edge, by frost, collision of 
ice, &:c., and the blocks again, when fallen are not so readily decom- 
posed or removed. Hence, also, the shallowness of the channel below. 
Some of our friends who meanwhile had been exploruig above the 
Falls, reported a small fall, ten or fifteen feet in height, about half 
a mile above, where the slate was replaced by sienite. 

We had some thought of proceeding up the river to Dog Lake, 
two days' journey to the north. But our men grumbled very much 
at the thought of the portages, (one of which from its destructive- 
ness to shoes is called Knife, or Devil Portage ;) then our canoes 
were too large for the undertaking, and might possibly be knocked 
to pieces ; so we concluded to give that up. 

Juhj 2Uh. — Last night was warm and rainy, and we started down 
the river this morning ui a drizzle. We stopped at the clay-bank, 
above which we had encamped before, to get some clay-stones, 
which occur here in abundance at the water's edge. These are 
nodules of clay, some soft, others of the hardness of chalk or harder, 
often in shapes requiring little aid of the knife to transform them into 
fantastic images. Capt. Bayfield says the bottom of Lake Superior is 
of clay, which readily indurates on exposure to the air.* 

Kaministiquia, according to our native authorities, signifies " the 
river that goes far about," which this river certainly does, though in 

* Bouchette's British Dominions in North America, I., 127. 



88 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

the course of its windings it presents such a variety of beautiful 
scenes of overshadowing forest, that we did not grudge the delay. 
Two or three miles down, long after we had lost the roar of the Falls, 
it suddenly came to us again, quite distinctly and unmistakably, 
probably owing to some shift of wind. 

This valley is the only spot we saw on the lake that seemed at 
all to invite cultivation ; indeed, if we except the posts, almost the 
only place where cultivation seemed possible. The better quality 
of the soil was abundantly manifest in the size of the forest trees. 
The crumbling banks of loam and sand furnished abodes to large 
numbers of sand-martins and kingfishers. We were seven hours 
in reaching the Fort, and found our companions had left two hours 
before. 



CHAPTER III. 

FORT WILLIAM BACK TO THE SAULT. 

July 25th. — We proposed to visit the copper-mine at Prince's 
Location, on the shore of the lake about twenty miles to the west- 
ward, and thence to cross to Isle Roy ale. In order to travel more 
rapidly we sent the bateau back to Point Porphyry to await our 
return, and proceeded with the two canoes only. 

Starting at about ten o'clock, we found the wind strong ahead 
and encamped early in a bay about fourteen miles from the Fort. 
On the way we passed Pie Island, a large mountainous island, 
so called from an isolated peak on the west, which bears a strong 
resemblance, not at all to a pie, but to a French pate, or pasty, with 
high sides; and this is its true name. A porcupine was killed on 
the beach as we landed, and proved very good meat. 

In the evening the Professor made the following remarks on the 
distribution of animals and plants : 

" There is no animal, and no plant, which in its natural state is found in 
every part of the world, but each has assigned to it a situation correspond- 
ing with its organization and character. The cod, the trout, and the stur- 
geon are found only in the north, and have no antarctic representatives. The 
cactus is found only in America, and almost exclusively in the tropical 
parts. Humboldt, to whom the earliest investigations on this subject are 
due, extends the principle not only to the distribution of plants according to 
latitude, but also according to vertical elevation above the surface of the 
earth in the same latitudes. Thus an elevation of fourteen thousand feet 
under the tropics corresponds to 53° north latitude in America, and 68° in 
Europe. The vegetation on the summit of Mt. Etna would correspond with 
that of Mt. Washington, and this again with the summits of the Andes, and 
the level of the sea in the Arctic regions. In the ascent of a high moun- 
tain, we have, as it were, a vertical section of the strata of vegetation which 
7 



/ 



90 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

' crop out ' or successively appear as we advance towards the north over a 
wide extent of country. 

" But in dwelling on the resemblances between the plants of high latitudes 
and those of high mountains, we must not lose sight of their not less con- 
stant differences. In the northern regions in general, we find the number 
of species comparatively small. Thus in the region through which we 
have passed, and which has already a northern character, we find vegetation 
characterized by great vigor ; the whole country covered with trees and 
shrubs, and lichens and mosses in great profusion, but the species few, and 
the proportion of handsome flowering shrubs small. In the Alps, on the 
other hand, vegetation is characterized by great beauty and variety, and the 
number of brilliantly flowering plants, of Gentianaceae, Primulaceae and 
Composit£e, is very great. The plants, however, are dwarfish, and vege- 
tation comparatively scanty ; the lichens and mosses much less abundant. 
There is, then, not an identity, but an analogy only, and an imperfect though 
very interesting one, between Alpine and Arctic vegetation." 

July 26^^. — We pursued our way this morning under the shadow 
of magnificent walls of basaltic rock, with Pie Island rising in the 
distance outside of us like a Gibraltar. We reached the Location 
early in the forenoon, and were most kindly received by Mr. Robin- 
son, the agent of the Montreal Mining Co., who have begun opera- 
tions here. 

A liigh rocky promontory, running S.W., (parallel to Thunder 
Cape and the other high ridges hereabouts,) is here cut across by a 
sort of fault or interval, leaving a strip of land rising gently from 
the lake on either side, to a ridge in the middle, backed on the 
north-east by cliffs seven hundred feet in height. The slope from 
the little curved beach where we landed was shaded by scattered 
trees left from the forest. Under these the workmen were busy 
in putting up cabins for a number of miners who had just come 
up with Mr. Robinson, and who, for the present, were living in 
tents on the beach. Back of these, was a row of cabins, and the 
little one-story house of the agent. Mr. R. showed us a large num- 
ber of minerals collected hereabouts, and kindly offered us whatever 
of them we chose to take. Among them were very brilliant speci- 
mens of calc-spar associated with cobalt, manganese, and blue and 
green sulphurets of copper. 



NARRATIVE. 91 

Afterwards he carried us by a path running back of the house 
past the opening of the shaft, through a clearing planted with pota- 
toes, and a young orchard of cherry, apple and pear trees, down to 
the cove on the other side of the point, whence we sailed across the 
strait to Spar Island. 

This island receives its name from a vein of calc-spar, some twenty 
feet wide, quite pure and white, except where brilliantly colored by 
metallic salts, running across the island and down into the lake on 
the other side, visible with a phosphorescent light for a considerable 
distance under water. This is the locality of most of the specimens 
we had seen at the oflSce ; splendid masses of white translucent spar, 
tinged with brilliant blue and green by the associated minerals. We 
noticed drift-scratches on the outer side of the island, having a direc- 
tion nearly E. and W. 

The day was showery, with driving thundery clouds and mist, 
through which we got a fine view of Pie Island, dim and majestic in 
the distance. We were driven for shelter into an unfinished build- 
ing of squared logs, which the company are erecting with a view to 
continuing the mining operations which have of late been suspended 
on the island. Such a building (about forty feet square and of two 
stories,) they say can be put up in four or five days. On our way 
back the weather improved, and we had a good view westward of hills 
over hills towards Pigeon River, the boundary between the United 
States and Canada, distant about twenty miles. 

When we got back towards evening, we found the miners amusing 
themselves after their day's work, by pitching, or " putting " stones, 
and I was surprised to find the puny Canadians had rather the advan- 
tage of the burly Cornish men. Mr. Robinson invited us to supper, 
and I believe none of us experienced any of the difficulty of the 
traveller, who, after a trip over the prairies, found hjmself, on his 
return to civilized life, constantly tempted to draw his feet up into his 
chair. In our case the benches were felt to be a decided improve- 
ment. 

After supper Mr. R. carried us into a shaft they are sinking at the 
foot of the cliff. Here we got fine specimens of Iceland spar. No 
ore had as yet been sent to market from this mine, but the prospects 
seemed favorable, and the whole establishment had a thriving look. 



92 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

July 27th. — We had intended to cross to Isle Royale, which lay 
like a blue cloud along the horizon, twelve or fourteen miles off, and 
vanishing into the distance eastward. Having got outside of the 
chain of islands, hoAvever, we found the wind so strong as to render 
the traverse dangerous, and we accordingly landed on one of the 
Victoria Islands, west of Spar Island, to wait for some change of 
weather. 

The beach where we landed was a mere niche cut into the side of 
the cliff, which rose steeply on all sides, thickly wooded. The 
ground everywhere covered with moss. Among the trees on the 
bank was the skeleton of a lodge, and a birch canoe apparently in 
good condition. Some playthings of the Indian children were lying 
about, among others a little boat scooped out of a chip of wood, with 
mast and bowsprit, precisely such as the boys make with us, and not 
at all resembhng the Indian canoes. The frequency of these traces 
of Indian encampments, with the small number of Indians living on 
this part of the lake, shows their restless, wandering disposition. 

While we were detained here, the Professor made some remarks 
about the theory of the formation of mineral veins by infiltration. 
This theory he considered untenable, since there is an evident con- 
nection between this phenomenon and some action of the walls of the 
fissures in which veins are found : 

" Thus at the vein we examined this morning at Prince's Location, we 
found each Avail of the fissures covered with quartz crystals whose axes 
were perpendicular to the walls : those inside were crystals of calc-spar dis- 
posed in the same way. An electro-magnetic action, (which has been pro- 
posed by some geologists,) would fully account for this arrangement. If 
we suppose an electro-magnetic current passing through the fissure, this may 
have brought together similar particles scattered thi'ough the rock, and dis- 
posed them in the manner we see. In order to settle this point, however, 
it would bo necessary to ascertain whether there is any constant relation in 
the aiTangement of substances found in veins of different localities : — 
whether the minerals always follow each other in the same succession. If 
this be the case, it will give great probability to the supposition of an electro- 
magnetic current, over that of any merely mechanical agency like infiltration. 
Such an examination might probably also distinguish the cases whore veins 
are formed by sublimation or deposition from vapors or gases from below. 



NARRATIVE. 93 

'Where the vein is composed of minerals not found in the surrounding rock, 
the probability would be in favor of sublimation : where the minerals occur, 
though in small quantities, in the rock, there the effect may have been pro- 
duced by electro-magnetism. There has been as yet no sufficient investiga- 
tion of this point. 

" It may be remarked here that even where the vein is composed of 
hydrates, in whose composition water occurs, it is not necessary to suppose 
them deposited by infiltration, since it has been proved that hydrates may 
be formed by sublimation." 

We remained here until half past three o'clock P.M., when, the 
weather continuing unfavorable, and even threatening a storm, we 
decided to give up our visit to Isle Royale, and to turn our faces 
homewards. 

The distance of this, our westernmost point, from the Sault, was 
about four hundred and forty miles by the way we came ; as we 
returned, rather more. 

The wind was fresh from the southward, and when we got outside 
of the islands there was so much sea that the other canoe, although 
within a short distance of us, often disappeared, sail and all. It was 
rather a long swell for the lake, however, and we did not experience 
any dilficultj from it, as we were nearly before the wind. We en- 
camped on an island to the southward of the Pate, in a deep bay 
with steep sides, overshadowed by trees of unusual size. 

July 2Sth. — Started before sunrise. Weather calm and pleasant. 
We passed under the south-east side of Pie Island, a vertical cUff 
several hundred feet in height, presenting much the same appearance 
as Thunder Cape, viz : basaltic columns, across which may be traced 
the marks of an horizontal stratification. These columns in some 
places have fallen out, leaving hollows, hke flues, in the side of the 
chff. In other places single columns stand out alone, like chimneys ; 
ui others, again, huge flat tables of rock have scaled off from the 
face of the wall, and stand parallel and a Uttle separated from it. 
The metamorphosed strata in one place were unconformable, exhibii>- 
ing a sudden fault. 

In the course of the forenoon several trout were caught, and the 
diversity of color led to some discussion. The men said there j^^ere 
three varieties, all of the same species: 1. the trout of the open 



94 . LAKE SUPERIOR. 

lake, (truite du large^ of a gray silvery color, with inconspicuous 
spots and a white belly ; 2. Those of the rocky ground, (truite 
des battures,^ more yellowish, with large distinct spots ; 3. Those 
of the sandy bottom, which are simply mottled. All the trout family 
spawn late ; the lake trout in October, on the sandy beaches, when 
they are taken in abundance in nets, and with ground-lines having 
forty or fifty hooks. 

' /The white-fish are everywhere scarce in August, (we could not 
learn-why,) so that the Professor found some difficulty in getting 
specimens on our return. In October they spawn, on pebbly ground, 
and are then taken in great numbers. They are always seined ; we 
did not hear of their ever taking the hook, though I have seen one 
take a fly from the surface. The lake herring spawns on similar 
ground, but in November ; the siskawet in the latter part of Au- 
gust. Suckers, cat-fish and sturgeon in the spring ; the sturgeon in 
swift streams ; the sucker at the mouths of the rivers ; the cat-fish 
on muddy flats ; the dory {Lucioperea,') in bays. 

We stopped at a little rock around which a great number of gulls 
(^Larus argentatiis,') were circling, and found there a few young 
ones and an addled egg. The young birds were about half grown, 
covered with grayish down, with irregular darker spots. None of 
them could fly, but they swam very well ; indeed, as it seemed to me, 
better than the old birds. They were crouched in crevices of the 
rock, and we saw no appearance of nests. The egg was coffee-col- 
ored, with brown spots. 

A fresh and fair breeze to-day, almost for the first time. We 
passed this morning several canoes of Indians, running before the 
wind with sails of birch bark. About noon, in threading a narrow 
passage among the islands we saw a smoke on shore, and directly 
afterwards the bateau, moored at the wharf of a deserted mining 
establishment, the buildings of which were still standing. 

We kept on with the same fair wind until sunset, when we en- 
camped on one of an extensive group of islands. As we glided 
rapidly into the little cove where we were to encamp, the water 
shoaled so suddenly, that looking down over the side of the canoe we 
seeAed to be rushing against the side of a mountain. These coves 
shoal rapidly and *have the bottom covered with huge rounded bowl- 



NARRATIVE. 95 

ders, like a gigantic pavement, whilst there are rarely large detached 
rocks on the beaches, doubtless owing to the violence of the waves, 
clearing out the smaller stones from the bottom, and heaping them 
up on the beach, and at the same time rounding the rocks below. 

We made about fifty miles to-day. 

July 2dth. — We started at sunrise, the weather clear and 
autumnal ; the wind northerly. Breakfasted on a barren island ter- 
raced with ancient beaches, strewn with drift-wood, all of it showing 
strong action of the waves. Some logs of a foot or more in diame- 
ter had been thrown to the distance of fully a hundred and fifty 
yards from the water's edge, and thirty or forty feet above its level. 
Soon afterwards we entered a straight, narrow, river-like channel, 
some twelve or fifteen miles long, leading inside of Fluor Island and 
St. Ignace, whose dark wooded sides made a purple background to 
the vista. The banks were covered with birch, presenting an unbro- 
ken fringe of green ; not a glimpse of the rock, and hardly, at inter- 
vals, the white line of sand at the edge of the water. 

After passing through this channel we came out into Neepigon 
Bay, and had to keep round to the left to a deserted mining station 
at Cape Gourgan, before we could get a good camping ground. 
There we found a clearing and a convenient landing place. One of 
our companions two years before, in the month of October, had seen 
a large party of miners set ashore here from the propeller, to open 
the works. The marks of their labors, with the approaching winter 
before them, were everywhere visible. Wood had been cut and 
piled up ; several log-cabins built and the cracks stuffed with moss 
and mud ; and the paths through the woods showed where they went 
for fuel or to hunt. The ground was strewed with fur and bones of 
hares, and several lynx skulls were picked up by the men. Hunting 
must have formed the principal occupation of their days, since their 
mining operations had not been carried further then a few shallow 
pits, which doubtless soon convinced them of the fruitlessness of their 
errand. 

It rained hard in the night, and we were somewhat incommoded 
by the leaking of our tent. 

Jidi/ 30^/i. — The rain continuing this morning, we did not think it 
•worth while to start. The Professor took advantage of the opportu- 



96 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

nity to make the following remarks on the causes that influence the 
outlines of continents : 

" The outlines of continents are not to be considered as fixed, immovable 
limits, but are variable, and dependent upon the degree of elevation above 
the level of the sea. For instance, were we to depress certain parts of South 
America or of the United States, even for a few feet, their outlines would be 
entirely changed, and immense tracts submerged ; and vice versa, a slight 
elevation would produce corresponding changes. 

" The west of Asia, comprising Palestine and the country about Ararat 
and the Caspian Sea, &c., is below the level of the ocean, and a rent in the 
mountain chains by which it is surrounded, would transform it into a vast 
gulf. 

" Continents are in fact only a patch-work formed by the emergence and 
subsidence of land. These processes are still going on in various parts of 
the globe. Wbere the shores of the continent are abrupt and high, the 
effect produced may be slight ; as in Norway and Sweden, where a gradual 
elevation is now going on without much alteration of their outlines. But if 
the continent of North America were to be depressed a thousand feet, 
nothing would remain of it except a few islands ; and any elevation would 
add vast tracts to its shores. 

" Elie de Beaumont, who has occupied himself much with tracing the 
changes wrought in continents by geological phenomena, has shown that 
chains of mountains elevated at the same time agree in direction. Thus the 
mountains of Scandinavia, the Ural chain and the Alps, &c. Before the 
elevation of the Alps, Europe was not divided into two gi'eat chmatic re- 
gions. In this country the north and south direction of the mountains has 
a great influence. Animals migrate more extensively, and the cold winds, 
penetrating further south, influence the temperature. 

" It would be very interesting to ascertain in detail the dependence of 
the forms of continents on geological phenomena. I have been struck with 
the possibility of this in running along the shore of this lake. Tbe general 
shape of Lake Superior is that of a crescent. But it would be a great mis- 
take to suppose it bounded by curved lines. Its shores are combinations of 
successive sets of straight parallel lines, determined in each instance by a 
peculiar system of trap-dykes. These dykes have flve general directions, and 
the outlines of the shores are determined by their combinations. One of 
these directions is east, 30° north. This we find in the islands off Prince's 
Location, in Isle Royale, &c., and then again in Point Keewenaw and White- 
Fish Point. This is cut across by one east, 20° north : these two we have 



NARRATIVE. 97 

seen in several places together. Another is north, a little east. Another 
nearly E. to W. The last has a direction north and south, which we see in 
Neepigon Bay, where are the only inlets on the lake running north and 
south. Of these various sets of dykes each has its peculiar mineralogical 
character." 

In looking round after the lecture for some more comfortable shel- 
ter than the tent, we espied a smoke rising from the chimney of a 
cabin at some distance in the clearing on the hill. Going thither we 
found one of the men very comfortably established on a sort of bench 
before a fire-place of stones and mud which occupied one of the 
corners. This was the only one of the houses that had a fire-place, 
and it was in all respects in much better condition than the rest, 
whether originally so, or from its remoteness having suffered less 
since its erection. Perhaps part of their company left the place 
when all hopes of copper vanished, and the rest then collected together 
in this building, leaving the other cabins to fall to pieces. 

However this may be, the signs of habitation were still fresh here, 
and likewise unmistakable traces of the severity of the climate. 
Not only were the interstices between the logs carefully stuffed with 
moss and mud, but even the chinks between the two rooms into which 
the little hut (not over twenty feet by ten in the whole,) was divided, 
were filled throughout with hares' fur, large quantities of which were 
also piled up in a loft above and on a rude bedstead in the further 
room ; a little cu'cumstance which told not only of cold, but also of 
the listlessness and ennui of the poor devils shut up here, who could 
find time to puU to pieces skins enough to make such a quantity of 
loose fur. This was shown also by the caricatures scrawled all over 
the walls wherever the wood would show a mark, and an attempt 
apparently to make out an alphabet, some characters of which were 
entirely anomalous, and if inscribed on one of the rocks, might make 
work for some future antiquary. Each of the rooms had a fire-place 
occupying the corner, one still in good order, the other fallen to 
pieces from the softening of the mud cement. It was sad to think 
of the long days and nights they must have spent here, blocked up 
by the snow and crowding round the fire-places from the keen air 
rushing in at the chinks of door and window. Yet they were not 



98 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

destitute of provisions, as the remains of hares, and of sundry bean- 
barrels marked " Montreal Mining Company," testified ; — they no 
doubt had cards, and perhaps, if they were Canadians, led pretty 
much the sort of life they liked best. The question of copper or 
no copper might be indifferent to them, if they were mere day- 
laborers, and for the rest, perhaps our commiseration was groundless. 

One of the men having broken the stem of his clay pipe to-day, re- 
paired it as follows ; having cut a chip from a spruce log, he whittled 
it round, and cut a notch about the middle, leaving the ends connected 
by a thin spindle of wood. Then after burying it for some time in 
the hot ashes under one of the fires, he withdrew it, and twisting it in 
his hands one side came loose, and he drew it off, leaving a tube sev- 
eral inches in length, into which he inserted the stump of his pipe- 
stem. I afterwards saw this repeated, and both times, I may remark, 
the division of the wood had nothing to do with the amiual rings, for 
the piece was taken near the outside of the log. 

Towards sunset it seemed to clear off, and some of the party paid 
a visit to a deserted shaft, a mile or two distant, where they found 
small quantities of copper associated with chlorite, which from its 
greenish color had probably been mistaken for ore. In retui'ning 
they got a ducking from a sudden shower. 

July 31s^. — We got off at five o'clock, the weather unsettled, and 
the wind high from N.N.W. We were in hopes to get round the 
point of St. Ignace, and then keep away before the wind. The pros- 
pect to windward was grand and striking. We were enclosed in an 
inner sea, a lake within the Lake : St. Ignace behind us, and on 
each side ridges of granite a thousand feet high. A sea of hills, 
rising from the rocky islands a few miles off, one over the other to 
the mountain chain far behind in the bottom of the bay. It v^as in 
fact an epitome of all the most remarkable scenery of the lake. 
The wind however increased so much that we judged it prudent to 
return. Accordingly we hoisted sail, and the canoe, right before the 
wind, swaying gently from side to side, like a sea-bird changing wings, 
made a comparative calm by its rapid flight ; occasionally we struck 
a wave as it drew back, and then some care was required to keep 
from running bows under. 

We encamped this tune somewhat beyond the place we had left, 



NARRATIVE. 99 

more under the lee of the point. It continued windy and rainy all 
day, the wind going down at sunset. 

Aug. \$t. — Started at four o'clock. Hazy, but soon cleared off, 
with westerly wind. We stopped to breakfast at a little sheltered 
cove on St. Ignace. The water here was filled for many rods with 
the larva-cases of a Phryganea, in such numbers that it was impossi- 
ble to dip a cup of water without bringing up several of them. The 
insects themselves were flying about in swarms. This was the only 
time that we met any considerable number of these insects, which 
abound about the muddy flats of the lower lakes ; the clear cold water 
of Lake Superior, and the pebbly bottom, are probably unfavorable 
to them. We continued coasting along St. Ignace, here a continu- 
ous cliff of red sandstone occasionally showing through its covering 
of forest. The wind was exceedingly variable to-day, shifting sud- 
denly from one point of the compass to the opposite. I think we 
might sometimes have counted ten distinct directions in as many 
minutes. 

Neepigon is said to signify " dirty water," and to-day it certainly 
deserved its name, being exceedingly turbid, and strongly in contrast 
with our experience of the other parts of the lake. But whether 
this is a constant phenomenon, or was an effect of the gale, I am 
unable to say. The bottom, in several places where I could observe 
it, was muddy, and the water unusually shallow. 

We now approached the northern shore of the bay, a majestic 
line of rounded hills, the highest bare at the top, but in general cov- 
ered with vegetation. A rocky cove where we stopped had been 
taken possession of by the Montreal Mining Co., who had made 
their mark on one of the trees, but apparently had not been encour- 
aged to proceed farther. At our camping-ground this evening we 
found strawberries, still unripe. 

Aug. Id. — Hazy, wind east and strong, the Fates having seem- 
ingly determined that we should have head winds in whichever direc- 
tion we steer. 

At Turtle Island we looked for limestone, but were unable to find 
any. At this place an immense trap-dyke, running east and west 
across the point of the island, had tilted the sandstone 10° — 12°, 
and for some thirty feet on each side of it the rock was shivered into 



100 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

innumerable vertical fissures, of a line or two in width, and on an 
average not more than an inch apart. These fissures were filled with 
calc-spar. 

We had now got back to the line of our westward course, and 
came this forenoon to the terraces spoken of Julj 15th. This re- 
markable formation (see frontispiece,) consists of three main ter- 
races with several subordinate ones, rising one above the other by 
steep slopes. They occupy the whole bottom of the bay, (which 
has here an apparent width of a mile or more,) having the slope and 
curve of ordinary sand beaches, which indeed they evidently are. 
The slopes and widths of each respectively are, according to the 
Professor's measurements, as follows : — First the sand beach, rising 
from the water 11° for about twenty yards, then for a short dis- 
tance 7°. Above this a ridge of pebbles 15°, beyond which was a 
belt of trees, and then a scanty growth of grass and a few low shrubs, 
extending about two hundred and fifty paces, with an ascent of 6°. 
From this an abrupt ascent of 20°, with a flat of fifty paces ; then an 
ascent of 10° for a short distance, then sixty paces of 7°, and one 
hundred and fifty paces of 5°. Then comes another steep ascent of 
30° to 33° to a space fifty paces deep of 10° — 12° . Then another 
ascent of 26° — 30°, succeeded by a succession of low, indistinct 
terraces, and finally an ascent of 20° to the top, which is nearly 
level for several hundred paces. The total height above the lake, 
according to Mr. Logan,* is three hundred and thirty-one feet. It 
will be seen that the whole presents a succession of acclivities in 
some cases as steep as the laws of equilibrium allow, alternating with 
slopes like the ordinary lake or sea beaches. 

The general' direction of these terraces is perfectly parallel to the 
present beach, and at right angles with the sides of the bay, which 
are high and rocky, and run in the same direction for some distance 
inland. From the further side of the highest terrace there is a 
uniform slope to a valley, apparently not much elevated above the 
level of the lake, and filled by a marsh and a small pond. The ap- 
pearance is that of a deep inlet dammed across by the lake. The 
material is a coarse sand, with gravel, supporting a scanty covering of 

* Geol. Survey of Canada. [A report to the Gov. General, Montreal, 1847.] p. 31. 








^'^-jg'-.'y a";.>,7^„ 



NARRATIVE. 101 

grass, and a few stunted spruces. The almost perfect regularity of 
these terraces, rising one above the other like one side of a gigantic 
amphitheatre, is very striking even at a distance, and the eflfect is 
increased by the absence of trees, giving the appearance of a 
clearing. 

As the day had grown very hot we refreshed ourselves, after our 
scramble up these steep sandy slopes, by a bath in the icy water of 
the lake, and had to wade out several hundred yards from the 
shore before getting out of our depth. On the smooth sand of the 
beach were tracks of a lynx that had evidently been prowling there 
since the wind fell this morning. 

As we pulled out of the bay a boat was entering it at the other 
side. It proved to belong to some government surveyors who were 
marking out mining locations, for which it seems there is still an 
active demand. They were established at the mouth of Black River, 
where we also encamped this evening. 

This place strikingly resembles the mouths of the Crapauds and 
Chienne Rivers. A broad beach of white sand, about a mile long, 
is cut through at the west by the stream. The entrance is narrow, 
with a bar across it on which is five feet of water. Inside there is 
a wide expansion, across which projects from east to west (the course 
of the river being south,) a sand-spit in the shape of a half-crescent, 
with a broad base and tapering to a point. The rapids within sight 
from the beach. 

Aucf. Sd. — Rain. Held up early in the forenoon, and we started 
off up the river to see some falls about two miles above. One of 
the surveyors was kind enough to accompany us as guide, but the 
woods were so thick, and the ground so rough along the bank, that 
we kept off to some distance, where it was more open, hoping to 
strike the river higher up. But after half an hour's hard work, hear- 
ing the noise of rapids and coming down to the stream again, we 
found ourselves precisely where we started from. We resolved 
next time to keep near the river. Here we had to scramble over 
rocks covered with black lichens, ( Gyrojyliora^ and make our way 
through dense spruce thickets, but whenever Ave strayed away from 
it we came to open desert tracts. At length we struck the river 
again, and came out at about the middle of a sand bank sloping un- 



102 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

interruptedly to the -water. The distance to the top of the bank 
seemed trifling, but once embarked we found it a very severe tug, for 
the average' slope being 30° to 31° and the sand very loose, we slip- 
ped back at each step nearly as much as we advanced. The height of 
the plateau above the river here is not less than a hundred feet, and 
the bank seemed to be composed of mere sand and gravel, hori- 
zontally stratified. Sitting down at the top to recover our breath, 
we had before us an extensive view over the forest, through which 
the river opened a long lane northward and seemed to expand be- 
yond into a lake. At this spot we struck a trail leading to some 
works opened a year or two since near the Falls. The supposed 
copper, however, proving to be iron pyrites, they were speedily 
abandoned. 

We had httle difficulty now in reaching our place of destination, 
and came out of the forest upon a chasm of nearly vertical slate rocks, 
on a level again with the river, which comes in from the northward 
in a mass of rapids and little preliminary cascades, and falls in one 
sheet fifty or sixty feet into the chasm, a sort of gigantic well-hole, 
its sides black and savage with the splintered edges of the slate- 
rock, and so steep and even overhanging that we could not from 
any position get a view of the bottom. Below, the stream turns 
sharply to the left and rushes out through a deep gorge not more 
than five or six yards wide at the bottom. From below the gorge 
there is a very wild and picturesque view of the river boiling out 
from between overhanging rocks. 

On our way back we followed the miners' trail all the way to the 
lake, coming out about a mile to the eastward of our camp. In 
our course we had diverged considerably from the river, and found 
the ground much more open, the trees scattered so much that we 
sometimes had difficulty in tracing the line which was " spotted" 
or scored upon them ; the ground dry and lichenous. "We descend- 
ed to the lake by a succession of well-marked terraces of large rough 
pebbles, and then through thickets and over irregular broken rocks 
in piles smoothed by a treacherous covering of moss. 

In the evening the Professor made the following remarks upon 
the terraces and the drift formation about the lake : 



NARKATIVE. 103 

" We liave seen at various points along our route, large accumulations of 
loose materials, often in the form of terraces. These loose materials are 
usually called ' drift,' but it is necessary to distinguish among the vari- 
ous formations known by this name, the beaches thrown up by the lake 
upon its present shores, and the ancient terraces above the present level of 
the water. Nevertheless, the connection between these two kinds of drift is 
such as to show that the latter also were formed by the lake, but under dif- 
ferent circumstances from the present beaches. The first question is, whether 
the lake was anciently higher ; the elevation of the ancient terraces having 
been the same as now ; or whether the land has been elevated. Either is 
possible, for we have examples both of elevation and of depression going on 
in our own day, as upon the eastern coast of Sweden and the western coast 
of Norway. This question cannot be settled by a simple inspection of the 
terraces, but only by a comparison of their elevation with the level of the 
surrounding region. Now the terraces we saw yesterday show a difference 
of level of over three hundred feet above the present lake beaches. If we 
add this to the present level of the lake, and suppose it formerly to have 
stood at the height which they now exhibit, it must have overflowed the 
whole United States and joined the ocean. But if this were so, we ought 
to find the remains of marine animals here, which is not the case. It is 
more probable, therefore, that the land has been elevated. 

" The foundation on which these terraces rest is uniformly rounded and 
scratched rock. During our whole journey we have nowhere seen serrated 
peaks ; everywhere the surface is smooth, grooved and scratched in a north 
and south direction, occasionally diverging east and west. And it is evident 
that the force that produced these appearances acted from north towards the 
south, for we generally find the south side of the rocks rough and precipi- 
tous, showing no abrading action, whereas they are smoothed off towards the 
north. Now it may be asked whether the loose materials before spoken of 
were the agents that produced these effects ? I think we may say positively 
that they were not. We have found the rounding and grooving at the 
highest point we have visited, that is, over twelve hundred feet above the 
level of the lake. This is much higher than any of these loose materials 
are to be found. Moreover we see they are disposed according to the pres- 
ent form of the lake, and evidently in many instances have been heaped up 
by a force acting in a direction from south to north, directly contrary to that 
of the grooving force. It is clear that the formation of the terraces was 
subsequent. They overlie the grooved and rounded rocks. 

" To ascertain the cause of this latter phenomenon we must find what are 
its limits. Now we find it occurring universally over the northern portion 



104 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

of the globe, and always having the same general direction. Its limits in 
elevation, as ascertained on the sides of mountains, is about five thousand 
feet above the sea. At about this height on Ben Nevis in Scotland, and on 
Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, the grooving and polishing ends. Be- 
low this level the whole northern surface of the earth as a general thing 
shows the marks of this agency. Some geologists attribute these effects to 
the action of currents. But currents extending over such a vast extent of 
the earth's surface must necessarily have been ocean currents, and these 
must have brought with them marine animals, of the existence of which no 
traces have been found. Moreover such extensive currents in one direction 
could not have existed : there would necessarily have been refluxes and 
counter-currents. 

These and other difficulties have led me to attribute these effects to an- 
other cause. It has been ascertained that the glaciers of Switzerland formerly 
extended much farther than at present, reaching, without interruption, to 
the vicinity of Paris, and, near their origin, to the height of nine thousand 
feet above the sea. Similar indications are to be found in all the mountain 
chains of Great Britain, and in various parts of Europe. Now at the time 
when such glaciers existed in Europe, the temperature must have been 
much lower than at present. The mean annual temperature of Switzerland 
must have been 15° Fah. below the present. That such a depression of 
temperature actually took place is also indicated by other facts. Thus the 
fossils found in the glacial moraines are of an arctic character, and shells of 
the German Ocean are found in the moraine gravels of Sicily. This, how- 
ever, is inconceivable without a corresponding depression all over the globe. 
Now if we suppose the mean annual temperature of this country to be 
reduced to 26° Fah., it would naturally be covered to a considerable depth 
with ice, which would move from north to south. Such a mass of ice mov- 
ing over the country would produce these effects of rounding and scratching 
the rocks, and would remove the soil, except from the depressions. It is 
sometimes objected to this theory that we have here no slope which should 
cause such a mass of ice to move onward. But it is not necessary that 
there should be any slope in order that a glacier should move. In the 
Swiss glaciers the motion is often slowest on the steepest part of the slope, 
and some glaciers of 7° inclination move faster than others with a slope of 
40°. The great motive force is not tlie gravitation of the mass, but the 
pressure of the water infiltrated into it. Then supposing the country to have 
been subsequently depressed, (as we see has been the case in Sweden and 
Norway, where marine shells have been found at the height of three or four 
hundred feet above the level of the sea,) and afterwards raised again, these 



NABiRATIVE. 105 

various terraces would mark the successive paroxysms or periods of reeleva- 
tion Such a depression would not cause an irruption of the sea, since the 
level of the lake is over six hundred feet higher than the sea-level. But 
these phenomena are exceedingly complicated, and cannot be sufficiently 
illustrated without further details. 

" The east and west direction of the scratches at Spar Island, contrary to 
the general rule, I suppose to have been caused by the depth of the chan- 
nel there, giving the glacier on its retreat a direction parallel to the shore of 
the lake. We had there two very distinct systems of strias, one much more 
southerly in direction than the other. Probably the glacier when advancing 
from the north, having an enormous thickness, disregarded the shape of the 
ground over which it passed, but on its retreat, that is, when it began to con- 
tract, having meanwhile melted away considerably and thus become lighter, 
its direction would be more easily modified. Similar phenomena are ob- 
served in the present glaciers in Switzerland. In a little loch near Ben 
Nevis there is also a secondary system of scratches, at right angles with the 
general direction, which may be traced even on the bottom of the loch." 

We learned from the surveyors that a brown bear, differing from 
the black and grizzly bears, is found in this region. It was said to 
be about the size of the black bear, and is probably the barren-ground 
bear, ( Ursus arctos americamis,') of Richardson, though he says this 
species is not found so far south. 

On coming out of the tent we observed that standing by one of 
the fires, so as to bring it between us and the rapids, the roar of the 
water was suddenly shut off, as if by a door, the sound being inter- 
rupted no doubt by the ascending column of heated air. 

The weather looked threatening this evening, and in the night we 
had a violent shower accompanied by thunder and lightning. In the 
midst of one of the gusts we were aAvakened by several small rivu- 
lets playing down upon us from folds in the tent, which, on account 
of the sandy soil, was not properly stretched. Indeed, without some 
better contrivance than mere loops for the tent-pins, a tent like 
that we had cannot be stretched so as to be water-proof in a vio- 
lent shower. One of the tents, brought by Mr. Marcou, of the kind 
used by the French officers in Algiers, was entirely water-proof, and 
in every way more convenient than ours. It was square, with nearly 
perpendicular sides, and stretched near the top by cross-pieces at 



106 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

right angles with each other, while the pole ran up in a point in the 
middle. The onlj help was to cover ourselves as far as possible 
with our water-proof cloaks, &c. But these in the pitchy darkness 
were not so easily found. We then attempted to light a candle, 
but the matches were damp, and with all our precautions could not 
be coaxed quite to the igniting point. Finally by the intervention of 
a flint-and-steel, (let not the traveller be seduced into placing his 
reliance in any new-fangled substitute for this trusty companion,) 
we managed to get a light and find our things, and therewith made 
ourselves tolerably comfortable. 

Aug. Ath. — Weather still unsettled, and we did not start until 
after breakfast. It was calm at first, but the wind soon rose strong 
from the N.N.W., obliging us to creep round very near the shore. 

We encamped at night on a point where the very wide and steep 
beach ascended by terraces to a long regular ridge. This ridge was 
covered, in one place in an unbroken patch of an acre or more, with 
a checkerwork of large tufts of yellowish gray and dark pinkish 
lichens, mingled with deep green juniper (-/. virginiana,') and Vac- 
cinia. 

The beach was covered with drift-wood, large trunks of trees with 
the roots often attached, most numerous on the top of the beach 
close to the trees, although the distance from the water must be a 
couple of hundred yards, and the elevation not less than thirty or 
forty feet. We never met with any floating wood. Doubtless the 
trees are washed away and thrown up in the winter, and cast higher 
by each successive storm until they are out of the reach of the water. 

The Professor found here, in place, the red porphyry of which we 
had found erratic blocks at many points to the southward on our way 
hither ; it was perfectly stratified, and associated with chlorite. 

Aug. bill. — We reached the Pic early this morning. As we ap- 
proached the wharf we saw our companions whom we had left behind 
here, waiting to receive us. The sick man had pretty nearly recov- 
ered, but still looked thin and pale. 

In the low grounds here, as at Fort William, we found partridges, 
(^Bonasia umhellus ;) in the wettest part of the swamp, directly at 
the foot of the ridge, I came upon a female with a brood of young 



NARRATIVE. 107 

nearly fledged. It is remarkable that this bird which with us aftects 
dry situations, about the lake seems, as far as our experience went, to 
prefer swamps ; the spruce-partridge ( Tetrao canadensis,^ being 
found rather on the high ground. But this apparent anomaly is ex- 
plained when we remember that in the White Mountains, for instance, 
Avhere both species are also found, the spruce-partridge is met with 
only at considerable elevations, among the spi-uces or " black growth," 
from which its popular name is derived, and the other bird in the 
valleys or lower slopes. But here, where the spruces come down to 
the general level of the country, the difterence of distribution is still 
expressed, though less distinctly, notwithstanding it necessitates a 
change in what would seem a more important point. In this instance 
a very decided habit of the bird is sacrificed to what many natural- 
ists would call a mere abstraction. 

In the night we were disturbed by the dogs, who swarmed as usual 
about the Indian lodges, and as usual were half-starved and depen- 
dent solely on their own exertions for support. A camp-kettle left 
outside of the tents attracted them into our neighborhood, and they 
made a great noise in rolling it over in their endeavors to get the 
cover off. Among this vagrant crew I was astonished to see Mr. 
Beggs' Esquimaux dog, who might be supposed to be too well fed to 
be tempted into such ways. This dog was said to be of the pure 
breed. He was of a yellowish-white color, of moderate size, with a 
small head, the nose pointed and the face rather wolf-like, though 
not at all savage in its expression. Round the neck was a ruff of 
hair, and the. tail was bushy and curled upon itself, as we see in the 
representations of this species. 

Aug. Hth. — Mr, Balleuden stopped here at sunrise this morning, 
on his way to the Red River settlement, of which we understood he 
had been appointed governor. He had come all the way from Otter 
Head this morning, a distance of forty or fifty miles, running before 
a strong S.E. breeze in his large two-sailed boat. But this wind 
which was so favorable to him was quite the reverse to us, and kept 
us degrades here until six P.M., when, there being a slight lull, we 
embarked. 

Mr. Swanston had promised to send us up some provisions hitTier 
from Michipicotin, but they had not arrived, and the stock in the 



108 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

store-house was so small that Mr. Beggs at first thought he could not 
spare us any, but just before we left, taking compassion on our desti- 
tute condition, he gave us a supply that would last us to Michipicotin. 

When we got outside of the bar the wind rose again. We soon 
lost sight of the bateau, and the two canoes kept on alone as well as 
they could against the wind and sea. We in the larger canoe could 
not help watching with some anxiety the other one under our lee, 
occasionally throwing half her length out of the water, and then 
pounding down so as to make it fly up on all sides. This thumping 
does not agree very well with the birch bark. The gum gets cracked 
and lets in the water, and there is not substance enough about the 
fabric to float when filled. It was fast growing dark, and the shore 
to leeward showed a horrid line of grim weather-beaten rocks and white 
breakers. At length the men in the other canoe called to us that 
they could stand it no longer, and kept away for a cove we had just 
passed. We followed them, but although only a few hundred yards 
behind, yet it was so dark that when we entered the narrow mouth of 
the bay, we could see nothing of them. The outline of the shore to 
leeward, however, was still distinguishable against the western sky, 
and we assured ourselves that they had not gone further to leeward. 
We kept, therefore, an anxious lookout as we ran rapidly up the 
narrow bay, so narrow that we could not pass them undiscovered if 
they were afloat, and fired off several guns, but without answer. 
Before long we came to what seemed the bottom of the bay, but here 
we found no signs of our companions, and seeing a further passage 
to the left, we supposed they had kept on. Accordingly we pushed 
on up a river-like inlet, with high mountainous ridges on each side 
half a mile or more before we came to the bottom. 

Here we landed on a little sand-beach, heaped up with a great 
quantity of drift-wood. While the men were pitching the tent in an 
open space inside the fringe of bushes, we lighted a fire, and looked 
about with a torch made of a roll of birch-bark for a tree suitable for 
a signal-fire. We soon found a tall spruce well covered with lichen, 
and applying the torch below, the flames climbed and spread upward 
and horizontally from one branch to another until the whole burst 
upwards in a vast tongue of flame, crackling and whirling up sparkles 
of burning twigs and leaves to such a height that it seemed impossi- 



NARRATIVE. 109 

ble that our friends should be iu the bay and not see it. But the 
flames went out, the last sparks one after the other dropped away, 
and .the dark walls of the bay came into sight against the sky, yet 
we listened and looked in vain for an answering signal. Next morn- 
ing, however, namely : 

Au(/. 1th — We were early awakened by their voices on the beach 
They had landed in the outer cove, and thus did not see our lire, 
being cut oflf by a high intervening ridge. They had heard the 
gun, but were engaged in hauling up the canoe, and so could not 
answer it. Looking round upon the prospects of the day we found 
the wind still so strong from the S.E. that there was no chance of 
getting off at present. Of this we could feel no more where we 
were, than if we had been at the bottom of a well, but the men 
pointed to the breakers at the mouth of the bay, where, at the dis- 
tance of a mile or more, the large and rapidly shifting masses of 
white against the black rocks showed that the surf was beating 
outside at least as violently as the night before. On listening, the 
roar of the waves could be distinctly heard. But immediately 
about us it was dead calm, with occasional eddies in the tree-tops 
from all points of the compass. A contrast such as the lake seems 
to love, as if it sought to break up the uniformity of its general 
features as much as possible by brisk and abrupt changes in the 
minor ones. Thus although the weather throughout our journey 
might be called settled, yet we very rarely had a steady wind, 
either as to direction or strength, and in the hottest day the shade 
of a rock, or a cloud passing over the sun was enough to make it 
cool. The range of clothing thus necessitated within the twenty- 
four hours was extraordinary. 

Our little point was as silent as a piece of the primeval earth ; not 
a living thing stirring except a few musquitoes, and an impudent 
moose-bird that perched down, with a jerk of the tail and a knowing 
turn of the head, among our very camp-kettles. A heavy stillness 
seemed to hang over it and weigh down every sound, so that a few 
paces from the tents one forgot that he was not alone. It was as if 
no noise had been heard here since the woods grew, and all Nature 
seemed sunk in a dead, dreamless sleep. 



110 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Yet it was clear we were not the first visitants, for the fire-weed 
had sprung up here, and close at hand Ave found lodge-poles, and 
the remains of fires. Here also was an Indian sweating-house ; a 
skeleton dome of sticks, about four feet high and two in diameter. 
The patient stjuats inside, and by his side are placed some hot stones, 
on which are thrown various herbs, by way of " medicine." Then 
the whole is covered in with blankets and pieces of bark, and he is 
left to simmer for the requisite period. 

Back of this a path led a short distance through the woods to the 
mouth of a sluggish stream some five or six yards wide that joined 
the bay north of our camp, which was thus cut off on three sides by 
it and the lake, and on the fourth by the mountain. 

Our beach, as I said, was heaped with drift-wood, most of it arbor- 
vit?s, recognizable by its twisted stem. This tree loves the water, 
and grows in situations where it is most exposed to be washed off 
by the winter storms. Some of the logs Avere of largo size, a foot 
or more in diameter, completely stripped of branches and bark, and 
in general of their roots, and exhibited marks of very rough hand- 
ling, being deeply grooved and rubbed, perhaps by chafing together, 
partly perhaps from ice. Many of them were very regularly and 
smoothly tapered at the end. Driven into the bay by the westerly 
gales in the winter, they had doubtless drifted along its steep sides, 
and been successively piled up at the bottom. 

Our men having such a store at hand did not spare fuel, and 
were mightily amused when we told them they had on five dollars' 
worth at once. But although cold morning and evening, it was 
very warm in the middle of the day, the temperature rising from 
about 40° to near 80° Fah. 

The water was deepest close to the rocks at the end of the 
point, though even there it was hardly anywhere more than five 
feet deep. Beyond, it was so shoal that we very easily waded 
across to the other shore, about a quarter of a mile. The bottom 
was an even surface of mud, on which Ave met one or tAvo large 
rounded pebbles half imbedded, but no sand or small stones. Vari- 
ous Avater-plants, namely, two species of Potamogeton, and an Echi- 
nodorus, with pretty Avhite flowers, Avere growing abundantly here. 



NARRATIVE. Ill 

The wind and waves still high outside. Several times the men 
went to explore, but returned, reporting it still too rough to venture 
out. 

Aug. Sth. — This morning we heard distant reports of guns, and 
the men thought it might be our friends of the bateau over in the 
next bay. As our provisions were getting very low (the bulk of the 
stores being as usual in the bateau,) they resolved to cross the ridge 
and fetch a supply. They reached the cove after a laborious climb, 
but found no traces of them, and so kept on to the Pic, where thej 
found them reestablished in their old quarters. 

We now reconnoitred again, but with the same results as before. 
Towards evening, however, the men seemed to have made up their 
minds that we should get off to-morrow. Certainly " la vielle,'" the 
old woman, as they called her, (a personage corresponding to our 
" clerk of the weather,") had given us a long enough bout of it, and 
it was time to expect a lull. Accordingly, they made all their pre- 
parations, and being desirous no doubt to appropriate to themselves 
the largest possible share of the good things of the wilderness, piled 
such a huge quantity of wood upon the fire that we were driven back 
yard by yard to the distance of some rods. 

Anr/. 9th. — Calm, with a slight fog, and soon cleared up very 
warm. This afternoon, for the first time on the lake, the wind was 
strong from the south. We encamped in a cove under a hook pro- 
jecting from the southward. The beach of large stones covered with 
lichens, whence the name of Campement du Pays de Mousse, 
which the cove bears. It is terraced up to a dividing ridge, and 
thence down in like manner to the lake on the other side. 

We had been struck for some distance back, and particularly to- 
day, with a falling off in the luxuriance of the vegetation, as com- 
pared with the country further north. This may be owing to the 
greater exposure to the northerly winds ; the more northern shore 
being protected on that side by a lofty and continuous barrier. In a 
very sheltered cove where we landed to lunch, the trees were of con- 
siderable size. One larch measured seven feet two inches in girth, 
three feet from the ground, and we judged its height to be at least 
sixty feet. 



112 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Aug. 10th. — Calm this morning, with a swell on the lake ; an 
unusual occm-rence, owing to the southerly wind of yesterday. We 
passed at a short distance the river Rideau, which falls in a succes- 
sion of cascades (said to have ninety feet descent in all) directly 
into the lake. The final fall, of about thirty or forty feet, is divided 
in the middle by a large rock, part of the wall of the cove into which 
it falls. This river, the only one we saw where the never-failing falls 
descend directly into the lake, was also the only one that had no 
sand-beach at its mouth. All the others were indicated from a dis- 
tance by an expanse of white sand. 

Shortly after, the wind sprung up fresh from the south-west, of 
which we took advantage with our tarpaulin sails. It is a mistaken 
notion that a canoe will not sail on a wind. Ours sailed very well, 
with the wind somewhat forward of the beam. Only the sails are 
not braced up much, but just enough to keep full ; since otherwise, 
having no keel, the canoe would make too much leeway. 

Opposite Otter Island we counted ten parallel trap-dykes, running 
north, twenty-five degrees west. Here are several terraces, passing 
by regular gradations into the present beach. At the Riv. a I'Ois- 
eau Vert are veins of epidotic trap. The bateau hove in sight out- 
side of us this morning, with both sails set. 

In the afternoon we came upon the bateaux from Michipicotin, 
moored under the lee of some rocks. They had been several days 
on the way already, being kept back by the wind, and thus it was 
that our stores had not arrived at the Pic. These were now handed 
over to us, consisting of pork and excellent ship-biscuit. The men in 
the boats Avere mostly half-breeds, with their families. Several of 
the women were very pretty ; their complexion, indeed, a faded or 
bleached olive, as if they had never seen daylight, but with a spot of 
color in the cheek. We passed Michipicotin Island, having neither 
time nor favorable weather for visiting it, and encamped on a beach 
of coarse dark sand, where we observed the white flowering raspberry 
for the first time on our return. 

Aug. llth. — At half past five this morning when we got under 
weigh, it was dead calm and somewhat foggy. The fog soon lifted, 
and the sun shone out warm. The surface of the lake continued 



NAKRATIVE. 113 

unruffled, reflecting, unbroken and scarcely dimmed in color, tlie 
full form of every rock and tree. Running along at a moderate dis- 
tance from the shore in this calm weather, we were often struck by 
an apparent convexity of the surface, as if the water were higher 
between us and the rocks. It even seemed to hide the line where 
land and water met. 

Suddenly the water was spattered by the rising of a shoal of lake- 
herring, and our men were immediately full of excitement, and must 
needs get the fish-spear from the bateau to have a stroke at them. 
By that time, however, the shoal had sunk again, and the men 
watched in silence and without dipping an oar, for them to rise- 
Looking down over the side of the canoe, we could trace the vast, 
simple lines of the rock, until lost in the green mist. Everything 
below the surface seemed to shine with a diffused phosphorescent 
light, like a green unclouded sky. All at once the shoal came in 
sight, under the boat, pressing steadily on with a broad front, a soli- 
tary white-fish rather in advance of the rest. Each kept his relative 
position to the rest, like a flock of waterfowl, and they glided easily 
onward without any apparent exertion except a tremulous motion of 
the tail. Yet they soon vanished ahead, and not long after a great 
trout came sullenly following in their wake, like a pirate hovering 
about a convoy of merchantmen. 

Some Indians came off to sell us fish, and our men in their gossip 
discovered they had in their lodge a couple of young foxes, which 
the Professor thereupon demanded to see, and bought. The poor 
little fellows were about half grown, and seemed to suffer from the 
heat. The first thing they did when we took them aboard, was to 
seek out the shadiest corner. They appeared to be perfectly tame, 
or at least inoffensive. 

We caught several trout ourselves in the course of the forenoon. 
I was struck with the fife-like appearance of the bait, (a trout's 
stomach drawn over the hook, and tied to the line above,) visible at 
a great depth. Out of water it has rather a shapeless appearance, 
but jerked along at a sufficient depth it has precisely the look of a 
small fish that has been wounded, so as swim with difiiculty and 
somewhat sideways. 

In the afternoon a favorable breeze sprung up. Our men were 



114 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

profuse in their thanks and compliments to the " old ladj," and in 
addition to the tarpaulin, must needs rig a spritsail, which they made 
of a blanket extended between an oar and the fish-spear. 

We reached Michipicotin at about five P. M. One of our first 
questions was as to the flies. Mr. Swanston said they were " all 
gone," which we found, comparatively speaking, true, but at the old 
camping-ground there were a few left to remind us of our former 
sufferings. 

We held a council this evening as to the advisability of making an 
excursion to Michipicotin Falls, six miles up the river. The majority 
were decidedly in favor of pushing on, and the Professor did not like 
to leave them. So it was settled that two of us who wished to go, 
should remain behind with the small canoe, and endeavor to overtake 
the rest by forced marches. 

On opening this evening a tin case in which bird-skins were packed, 
I found the inside covered with drops of water, and some of the skins 
so wet that I had much difficulty in drying them. As the case was 
surrounded by an India-rubber covering, and the whole put into a 
wooden box, which was perfectly dry, the moisture could have come 
only from the condensation occasioned by the great and sudden 
changes of temperature. Metal, therefore, is to be avoided here, if 
dryness is requisite. 

The dogs disturbed us somewhat in the night by their antics with 
a frying-pan and a tea-kettle, Avhich Henry had unfortunately omitted 
to place out of reach. A troop of mongrel curs seems to be a gene- 
ral characteristic of an Indian village, though they neither make use 
of them nor seem to take any care of them,* and one does not see 
why they should keep them, unless it be for an occasional dog-feast, 
an observance which, to judge by the lean condition of the dogs, is 
rather gone out of fashion. 

Aug. 12th. — Warm and cloudy. While our friends were making 
ready for departure, we set off for the falls, with an Indian lad for 
guide, paddled a few hundred yards up the river, and having pulled 
the canoe up on the scanty beach on the opposite side, climbed up 

* One Indian, however, who readily sold his dog for a trifle, revoked the bargain 
when he understood that the skeleton only was wanted. "Whether this was from any 
feeling for the dog, or only from some superstition, we could not learn. 



NAKRATIVE. 115 

the steep sandy bank, twenty or thirty feet high, and found ourselves 
upon a wide plain, bounded by the river on the right, and some steep 
rocks in the distance, on the left. 

The surface was level and barren, not a tree in sight, but only a 
uniform expanse of withered herbage, bearberry, lichens and great 
quantities of blueberries and huckleberries, now ripe, much to our sat- 
isfaction, for we had not tasted fruit of any sort for so long that even 
these humble kinds had a flavor unknown before. There were two 
sorts ; the most abundant was of a light lead color : the other larger 
and of a dull blackish. We did not stop to gather them however, 
but pulLxl them by handfuls as we ran along the trail, to the an- 
noyance of our little Indian, who had evidently calculated upon a 
deliberate feast. 

The path was worn through the crust of superficial vegetation 
and the thin seam of mould that supported it, a foot deep into the 
sand below, and so narrow that we had to walk Indian fashion with 
toes turned in, and I had some trouble to avoid grazing my ankles 
with my shoe-soles. My companion wore moccasins, a much more 
comfortable gear for this ground. 

The weather was very warm, and the flies exceedingly trouble- 
some, rising in swarms from the blueberry bushes when we touched 
them. Whether from a presentiment of their coming end, or from 
some other cause, they were not flying abroad to-day, but collected 
on the ground. Once roused, however, they showed no backward- 
ness in making an attack. Having for the first time" open ground 
enough to observe their manocuvrings, we tried to outrun them, 
and easily left them behind, but in a short time the swarm, like a 
pack of wolves, and guided to all appearance in like manner by 
scent, came ranging up in a body and fell on afresh. 

Continuing on for about a mile we came to a sudden depression in 
the plain. We stood on the edge of a steep bluff some forty feet 
high. Below, the broad level valley stretched off apparently to the 
river on the right, and on the left to some rocky hills several miles 
distant. It seemed perfectly level and sandy, and in all respects 
like the plateau on which we stood, except that it was still more 
barren and showed patches of bare sand. On the opposite side the 
bluff rose, again as abruptly to about the level at which we stood. 



116 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

It had all the appearance of a sudden and even depression across 
a previously unbroken plain. Mj companion thought it a former 
bed of the river, and that he could see an opening in the hills to 
the left (which direction we knew the river took above) through 
which it might have flowed. T could see nothing of this, nor did 
the valley seem to me to present the appearance of a river-bed, for 
it was perfectly level, free from stones, and nowhere less than half 
a mile wide, varying from this to perhaps three fourths of a mile, at 
least six times the present width of the river. In our haste nothing 
very satisfactory could be made out, but my general impression was 
that it was the bed of a former arm of the lake. 

Crossing the valley and ascending the bluff, by an equally steep 
path on the other side, we came before long to scattered spruce 
trees, and at the distance of about three miles from the factory, to 
the river again. Here we were made aware that what had seemed 
to us a horizontal plain, was in truth a gradually ascending level, for 
w^e now stood sixty or seventy feet above the stream. A little brook 
scarcely deep enough to swim a trout came into the river here at 
the same level, having sawed through the sand to its very base, leav- 
ing on each side a steep slope of pure sand, excessively fatiguing to 
ascend. We were now surrounded by a tolerable growth of spruce 
and birch, occasionally forming thickets. The aspect of the coun- 
try was not unlike that of the White Mountains at the elevation at 
which the forest begins to disappear, only more abounding in lichens 
and small shrubs. 

There was no opportunity in the course of our hasty walk to ob- 
serve the stratification of the sand. We saw no freshly broken sur- 
faces, and in the paths the materials were of course displaced. In 
general terms, however, I may say that it was a coarse, reddish sand, 
mixed with gravel and with a few stones, which were somewhat 
rounded but not scratched as far as I observed. The general ap- 
pearance was much the same as that of the bluff at the factory, 
which is very distinctly stratified. 

Afterwards we came out into an open space whence vfe had a 
very extensive view over woods and barren ground, with occasional 
glimpses of the river far below, and on the edge of the horizon a 
peep of the lake. 



NARRATIVE. 117 

About three quarters of 9, mile from the falls we struck the 
portage path, running through deep moist woods. Across it were 
laid logs, at short distances apart, so that it was like walking on a 
railroad where the sleepers have not been filled in. An explanation 
soon presented itself, in a smooth, narrow trench in the middle of 
the path, such as would be made by the keel of a vessel, and on 
each side the traces of a heavy body dragged over the ground; 
we conjectured that it was an arrangement for facilitating the trans- 
port of the heavy bateaux that come down from Hudson's Bay. 
When we reached the head of the portage we found we had guessed 
rightly, for here lay several large boats ready to be hauled across. 
These bateaux measure generally twenty-eight feet in the keel and 
near forty above, and are very heavily built, yet as Mr. Swanston 
afterwards told us, the voyageurs make nothing of the portage, and 
amuse themselves with racing the boats against each other over 
the path. 

At the head of the portage we found ourselves a good way 
above the falls, but there was no appearance of a path, so we made 
our way down stream through the tangled arbor- vitgss,* and soon 
came out in front of the upper fall. 

Michipicotin Falls consist of three cascades of about equal heights, 
separated by short intervals of rapids ; the total descent is upwards 
of eighty feet. At each fall the river is compressed to the Avidth 
of a few yards between projecting points of rock, and below each 
expands again somewhat. 

The rock is a gray sienite, broken into huge parallelograms, some 
lying about in loose fragments, in others, the cleavage lines indi- 
cated on the face of the rock having a dip of about 20° southwest, 
that is, at right angles with the fall. These projecting points and 
detached fragments of hard rock in the bed of the cascade, give it a 
peculiar character. Thus at the foot of the second fall the whole 
mass of water is thrown upwards again in a vast fountain of spray, 
from the resistance of some obstacle below the surface. 

The third or lower fall is very striking. Whether from the sudden 
expanse of the channel, which becomes somewhat wider here, or 
from the shape of its bed, it forms a regular half-dome of broken 
water, a most magnificent spectacle, not at all like any other large 



118 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

fall I ever saw, but resembling on a gigantic scale the bell of water so 
often formed by a projecting stone in small mountain streams. 

This indeed might serve for a description of the whole scene. It 
is a mountain torrent on a large scale, and without the majesty of Ni. 
agara, or even of Kakabeka, it has a charm of its own in its exuberant 
life and freedom. Below, the river turned to the right, leaving at its 
outer angle a whirlpool, in which were revolving a great quantity of 
logs, as cleanly stripped of bark, roots, and branches, as if prepared 
for the saw-mill. 

From what I could observe, the river-bed above the falls is not 
much below the general level of the country ; as if it flowed there 
over a rocky plateau, covered with a scanty depth of soil, and 
abruptly falling away at the falls, forming a barrier against which 
the sand and gravel from the lake have been heaped. Below, the 
banks are high, of loose drift deposit. This may be the edge of a 
step in the descent from the height of land. 

Reaclung the factory again, we found all in readiness for depart- 
ure, the men anxious to be off, and the lake so smooth that we could 
take the direct line for Cape Choyye, which we reached a little after 
sunset, while the air was still full of rosy light, the moon just peep- 
ing through the fringe of forest on the edge of the cliff above us. 

Here the men proposed to stop for rest and refreshment, and then 
to keep on by moonlight. 

At the place where our tents had been pitched, I found the ever- 
green boughs still undistui-bed on the stones ; the balsam twigs still 
retained most of their leaves, but the spruce were entirely bare. 
We hastily drank our coffee, and the men their tea, and then reem- 
barked. About ten o'clock we were awakened by the cessation of 
motion, and found ourselves in a narrow cove near Cape Gargantua,. 

Aug. loth. — It was warm and rainy this morning, with fog. We 
started early, and approaching the Riviere aux Crapauds, the men 
saw a boucane, namely, a smoke (whence, bye the bye, the term buc- 
caneer'), and said we should find our friends there, though we could 
not well distinguish it from fog. They were right, however, for 
there they were, just done breakfast. 

I was struck with the unhesitating accuracy with which our men 
steered in the fog to-day ; they evidently knew the way now, though 



NARRATIVE. 119 

bj no other landmarks than rocks and islets, which to an ordinary 
observer seemed all alike. 

In the afternoon it rained hard. We protected ourselves with the 
tarpaulin, elevated in the middle with a tin map-case by way of tent- 
pole. The rain stopped towards evening, and close before us lay 
Mica Bay, with its wharf and crane, and Capt. Matthews' cottage 
on top of the bank. 

The Captain had gone to commence mining operations at Michipi- 
cotin Island. Mrs. Matthews, however, and Mr. Palmer, a young 
gentleman attached to the establishment, received us most hospita- 
bly. Mr. Palmer gave the Professor several valuable specimens, 
and showed us the commencement of a very elaborate survey of the 
location, in wdiich even the trap-dykes (which here intersect at some 
points in the most intricate manner,) were laid down. 

Aug. X'Uli. — Before starting this morning, Mr. Palmer carried us 
up to the mine to see some " pot-holes," that had been discovered 
there since we were here before. The spot where they are found is 
two hundred feet above the present level of the lake, in a narrow 
vein filled with rolled pebbles and gravel, lying directly over the 
lode which is now worked. This vein runs vertically through a con- 
siderable thickness of unstratified drift, with angular bowlders, and 
scratched., but no rounded pebbles. The rock slopes steeply towards 
the lake, and some of the holes are joined together like stairs, the 
stones that formed them having evidently worked by degrees down 
the slope, as we see them doing now at Cape Choyye. 

We left with a favorable breeze, passed Mamainse, and were 
already expecting to reach the Sault to-day, but by the time we were 
abreast of the Sandy Islands, it blew so hard that it was thought pru- 
dent to put in and wait for a lull, the bay beyond being, according 
to the men, a dangerous place in foul weather. The other boats had 
disappeared ; the bateau to windward, the canoe working in shore 
towards Goulais Point. 

On the broad sandy beach, as we landed, we found the tracks of a 
fox, just made, for the Avind had not filled them up. I set out to 
explore the island, without my gun, however, contrary to my wont, 
having unluckily left my powder in the other canoe. As I approached 
a fallen spruce tree that lay about thirty yards off, with its top in the 



120 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

water, I saw coming towards me from on the other side — a fox ! 
The fellow was of the variety called " Cross Fox," lean and hungry- 
looking. He trotted leisurely on, as one sees a dog trotting along a 
pathway, — occasionally pausing to sniff at a dead craw-fish. I did 
not attempt to hide myself, but stood perfectly still. He came care- 
lessly on, and cleared the tree with the lightest and gracefullest of 
leaps, but his black paws hardly touched the sand before he had 
whisked like lightning from his course, and disappeared in the wood. 

As the island is not a mile long and only a few hundred yards 
across, it was a matter of wonderment how he got here, or what he 
could find here to live upon. The men said he had most likely come 
across on the ice from the main land (a distance of about four miles) 
in the winter, and had not dared to swim back again. We found 
marks of digging in various parts of the island, and conjectured he 
had been reduced to a partly vegetable diet. If he could have 
trotted undisturbed a few rods further, he would have found what I 
picked up in his stead, the dead body of a little warbler that had 
evidently been beaten down and drowned in the storm the day 
before, and lay on its back on the sand at the water's edge, the wings 
a little open, quite fresh, and the plumage hardly ruffled. 

At dusk, two figures appeared on the beach of an island about 
half a mile ofi". Our men said they were "Frangais," that is, not 
Indians,* but more could not be made out. They proved afterwards 
to have been some of our friends of the bateau, but they had 
encamped on the opposite side of the island, and did not see us. It 
rained at intervals, and blew very hard in the night, the wind shift- 
ing from north-west to north-east. We had fears for our tent, but for- 
tified ourselves by felling a few trees to windward. 

Aug. Ibth. — At five o'clock this morning it still blew hard, 
and although the wind was more off shore, and the waves accordingly 
not so high, yet the rollers were plunging along the beach with a vio- 
lence that rendered embarkation somewhat hazardous. But we were 
all anxious to be off. To-day was the day fixed for reaching the 

* These half-breed voyageurs are true creatures of tradition, and still divide the 
human race into but two classes, "Francais" and " Saxivages." Before I understood 
this, one morning we found on a beach where we landed, tracks of men who, they said, 
were " Fran9ais." When I asked them how they knew this, they pointed to the marks 
of boot-heels in the sand. 



NARRATIVE. 121 

Sault, and we could reacli it easily from here. Our men were as 
eager to be gone as we, for tliey had worked long enough at one job 
to be dad of a change. Then at this season it was as like as not to 
blow for a week, and harder, and our provisions would not hold out 
many days. 

So the canoe was set afloat, and held head to sea by a man on 
each side, standing up to his middle in the water. In this position it 
was carefully loaded, and we got on board over the stern. Finally 
the men contrived to get in and push off without serious accident, 
though not without shipping a good deal of water. As the wind 
was directly off" shore, matters improved as we proceeded, and before 
long we were under the lee of Gros-Cap. 

The thickets of white flowering-raspberry were now full of fruit ; the 
berries averaging about three quarters of an inch in length, by two 
thirds in diameter, and rather firmer and more symmetrical than 
the common cultivated species. The taste is slightly acid, but 
agreeable. Probably they were not entirely ripe. There was also 
an abundance of the common wild raspberries. 

From Gros-Cap to the mouth of the river, the water was not more 
than three or four feet deep ; the bottom gravel. Farther out 
it is deeper, but the amount of water that leaves the lake is 
small, as is shown by the moderate rate of the current at the 
entrance of the river, notwithstanding the narrowness of the outlet. 
At the Pointe-aux-Pins, where the shores from being over two 
miles apart suddenly approach to within half a mile of each other, 
we did not perceive any acceleration of the current. The fact is 
the channel has only this width all the way down to the Sault ; the 
rest being very shallow. The banks are low, so that a very slight 
elevation of the surface of the lake would give an outlet of five or 
ten miles in width down to the Sault, and expanding below. 

Arriving at the head of the portage, we found some of our friends 
awaiting us. Both the boats had got in just before us, and they 
had hastened to get on their civilized costume and run back to meet 
us. Singularly enough, the " Dancing Feather " had arrived that 
morning, about two hours before us ! So here we wei*e all on the 
day appointed for meeting, although we had paddled four hundred 
miles, and they twice as far since we parted. 



122 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

We had arranged to shoot the Rapids, instead of landing above. 
The men did not seem to think it much of an exploit, and made no 
change in the stowage of the canoe. The oars were taken in ; the 
steersman and bowman furnished with paddles instead. We glided 
quietly down, the paddles just touching occasionally, with a few rapid 
and vigorous strokes at certain points. 

The water is so little broken that we seemed not to be moving 
very fast, and it was startling on looking down over the side to see 
the bowlders on the bottom twitched by so quickly that it was impos- 
sible to see their forms. It was like looking down from a railway 
car upon the sleepers. Whether from bravado on the part of our 
men, or from the necessity of the case, we several times passed with- 
in a foot or less of rocks apparently just under the surface. We 
were not more than three or four minutes going down, though the 
distance is nearly three quarters of a mile. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FROM THE SAULT HOMEWARD. 

Lake Superior is to be figured to the mind as a vast basin with a 
high rockj rim, scooped out of the plateau extending from the Alle- 
ghanies to the Mississippi valley, a little to the south of the height of 
land. Its dimensions, according to Capt. Bayfield, are three hundred 
and sixty miles in length, one hundred and forty in breadth, and fifteen 
hundred in circumference. The momitainous rim is almost unbroken ; 
its height varies from the average of about three or four hundred 
feet, to twelve or thirteen hundred ; the slopes are gradual towards 
the north, and abrupt on the opposite side, so that on the north shore 
the cliffs rise steeply from the water, whilst on the south it is said 
the ascent is more gentle ; the abrupt faces being inland. 

This difference of formation, joined to the prevalence of northerly 
■winds, has given very different aspects to the two shores ; the southern 
showing broad sand-beaches and remarkable hills of sand, whereas 
on the north shore the beaches are of large angular stones, and sand 
is hardly to be seen except at the mouths of the rivers. The rivers 
of the southern shore are often silted up, and almost invariably, it is 
said, barred across by sand-spits, so that they run sometimes for 
miles, parallel to the lake, and separated from it only by narrow strips 
of sand projecting from the west. 

The continuity of this rim. occasions a great similarity among the 
little rivers on the north and east shores, and no doubt elsewhere. 
They all come in with rapids and little falls near the lake, and more 
considerable ones farther back. These streams are said often to have 
in their short course a descent of five or six hundred feet. 



124 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

This huge basin is filled with clear, icy water, of a greenish cast, 
the average temperature about 40 ° Fahrenheit. * Its surface is 
six hundred and twenty-seven feet above the level of the sea ; its 
depth, so far as actual soundings go, is a hundred and thirty-two 
fathoms, that is, one hundred and sixty-five feet below the sea level ; 
but Bayfield conjectures it may be over two hundred fathoms in some 
places. f 

In geographical position the lake would naturally seem to lie 
within the zone of civilization. But on the north shore we find we 
have already got into the Northern Regions. The trees and shrubs 
are the same as are found on Hudson's Bay ; spruces, birches and 
poplars ; the Vaccinia and Labrador tea. Still more characteristic 
are the deep beds of moss and lichen, and the alternation of the dense 
growth along the water, with the dry, barren, lichenous plains of the 
interior. Here we are already in the Fur Countries ; the land of 
voyageurs and trappers ; not from any accident, but from the char- 
acter of the soil and climate. Unless the mines should attract and 
support a population, one sees not how this region should ever be 
inhabited. 

This stern and northern character is shown in nothing more clearly 
than in the scarcity of animals. The woods are silent, and as if de- 
serted ; one may walk for hours without hearing an animal sound, 
and when ho does, it is of a wild and lonely character ; the cry of a 
loon, or the Canada jay, the startling rattle of the arctic woodpecker, 
or the sweet, solemn note of the white-throated sparrow. Occasion- 
ally you come upon a silent, solitary pigeon sitting upon a dead 
bough ; or a little troop of gold-crests and chickadees, with their 
cousins of Hudson's Bay, comes drifting through the tree-tops. It 
is like being transported to the early ages of the earth, when the 
mosses and pines had just begun to cover the primeval rock, and 
the animals as yet ventured timidly forth into the new world. 

The lake shows in all its features a continental uniqueness and 
uniformity, appropriate to the largest body of fresh water on the 

* Logan, and Dr. Charles T. Jackson. A recent letter from the lake, dated July 1, 
1849, mentions the temperature of the surface, at eight o'clock, P. M., as 37°. 

t According to Bayfield's paper in the Transactions of the Literary and Scientific 
Society of Quebec, (cited in Bouchette's " British Dominions in North America." I., 
128, et scq.) 



NARRATIVE. 125 

globe. The woods and rocks are everywhere the same, or similar. 
The rivers and the islands are counterparts of each other. The very 
fishes, although kept there by no material barrier, are yet different 
from those of the other lakes. Where differences exist between the 
various parts, they are broad and gradual. 

Aug. IQth, 11th and 18th. — Principally employed in arranging 
and packing specimens. Prof. Agassiz' collection alone occupied 
four barrels and twelve boxes, mostly of large size. 

In the meantime our party gradually dispersed. Some took the 
steamer for Mackinaw ; others were to remain for a few days at the 
Sault, whilst another party determined to take the English steamer 
" Gore," to Sturgeon Bay, and return home through Upper Canada. 

Aug. 19th. — We started at eight o'clock A.M. in the " Gore," a 
very well-arranged and comfortable boat. Our first move was to 
cross the river, where we took in the (English) Bishop of Toronto, 
with his chaplain and another clergyman. We understood they had 
been consecrating a church on the English side. 

The scenery below the Sault is pleasing, and in many respects like 
that we had just left, as if the influence of the Great Lake extended 
beyond its shores. The trees seemed to be of the same species, and 
there was the same abundance of wooded islands and islets. The 
Professor observed that the scratches on the rocks were not parallel 
to the valley, but have a constant north and south direction. The 
high land forming the sides of the valley retreats gradually on each 
side, leaving a wide expanse of low shores which would be inundated 
by a slight elevation of the water. For some distance below the 
Sault the river is shallow, and the bottom distinctly visible, showing 
ripple-marks in many places which are constantly covered by several 
feet of water. 

About three o'clock P.M., we reached the Bruce copper-mine, to 
the northward of St. Joseph's Island. The long wooden pier to 
which we moored was heaped with the most brilliant ore of the kinds 
the miners call " horseflesh" and " peacock ore," having every hue 
of blue, purple and golden. The first question the agent asked us 
when we landed, was, whether we had a medical man with us, for 
two of his men had just been injured by a premature explosion. For- 
tunately, there were two of the profession in our party, not to count 



126 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

the Professor, and the poor fellows were immediately attended to. 
They were dreadfully burnt and torn about the face, and were moan- 
ing with pain, and still more at the thoughts of losing their eyes, and 
thus their means of support. The doctors shook their heads at first, 
but afterwards, after proper washing, &c., their case looked better. 
They were taken on board to be carried to the hospital at Penetan- 
guishene, and we had the satisfaction on landing them there of believ- 
ing that they would come out with an eye apiece, at the worst. 

This mine belongs to the Montreal Company, and the little settle- 
ment has a thriving look. The works that we saw were mostly open 
trenches, displaying a few feet of top-soil, consisting of unstratified 
drift, clay with scratched pebbles and bowlders. The metalliferous 
rock, which is sienite and metamorphic talc-schist, with veins -of 
quartz, is also polished and scratched. The ore consists of various 
sulphurets of copper, particularly the yellow. At St. Joseph's, where 
we stopped to wood, the Captain, (a very intelligent man, abounding 
in information concerning the country,) took us to see a rock which 
he considered a great curiosity. It proved to be a large bowlder of 
the most beautiful conglomerate, presenting a great variety of bril- 
liant colors ; agates, jasper, porphyry, trap, &c., all polished down to 
an even surface. Other bowlders of the same kind were lying about 
near the beach. The rock in place is Trenton limestone, and full 
of the organic remains peculiar to that deposit. We observed great 
numbers of bowlders on all the islands we passed in Lake Huron. 

There is a little settlement on this end of the island, which the 
captain called his, as the land belongs to him. He bought seven 
hundred acres, (no doubt of our friend the Major and his co-tenant,) 
at the rate of twenty cents an acre, for land said to be fertile, and 
certainly supporting a fine growth of hard-wood trees. 

In the evening the Professor made the following remarks on occa- 
sion of the bowlder : 

" This bowlder may be considered as an epitome of all the rocks we have 
seen. A complete examination of it would occupy a geologist many months. 
This conglomerate is associated with the oldest stratified formations, and must 
have been formed in the same epoch with them. Its component parts give 
us some insight into its age. It contains no fragment of fossiUferous rock ; 
thus the pebbles of which it is composed must have been broken off, rolled 



NARRATIVE. 127 

by the waves and thereby rounded and smoothed, and afterwards cemented 
together, before the appearance of animal life on the earth. On the other 
hand it contains trap ; thus trap-dykes must have been thrown up at that 
early period. Its other elements are jasper, porphyry, agate, quartz, and 
even mica ; all belonging to the ancient rocks which we have seen on Lake 
Superior. In one of the bowlders the materials are slightly stratified, so 
that they had been arranged in layers before they were cemented together. 
In all of them the cement is more or less vitrified, showing a strong action 
of heat. This must have been derived from plutonic agencies, so that the 
plutonic action on the lake commenced before the introduction of animal life. 
The sandstone formations about Grros-Cap and Batcheewauung Bay indicate 
in all probability the beaches of the ancient continents from which these frag- 
ments were detached, and the outlines of the seas by which they were rolled 
and worn. Afterwards they were conglomerated, and then removed hither 
by other agencies. This bowlder does not show the marks of having been 
transported by the action of. water. Its surface is smoothed and grooved in 
a uniform manner, without the slightest reference to the different hardness 
of its various materials. Had it been worn into its present shape by the 
action of water, the harder stones would be left prominent. I have no doubt, 
from similarity of its appearance in this respect to the rocks of the present gla- 
ciers of Switzerland, that it has been firmly fixed in a heavy mass of ice and 
moved steadily forward in one direction, and thereby ground down." 

These remarks being made in the main cabin, in the presence of 
the Captain and the other passengers, one of the clergymen after- 
wards took the Professor to task for denying that the world and its 
inhabitants were all made at once, as if this was a well-understood 
thing, and got quite indignant, when he would not admit that the 
Bible had so settled it. His tone on this occasion, (for otherwise he 
appeared to be a well-bred and educated man,) seemed to indicate a 
different position of the old theologico-geological question here, a 
question one would have thought finally disposed of among men of 
liberal training. 

Aug. 20th. — We stopped this morning at a little settlement on the 
Grand Manitoulin, whither the Indians come yearly to receive their 
" presents." A few soldiers are stationed here to keep order on 
these occasions. It is a significant fact that both here and at Mack- 
inaw, the ground-rent paid by the British and United States govern- 



128 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

ments'to the original lords of the soil, goes under the name of a 
present, as if dependent on the mere good-will and pleasure of the 
tenants. 

The Indians had been collected here a week or two before, it was 
said, to the number of three or four thousand ; we saw the traces of 
their encampment on the beach. In general it is only those living in 
the neighborhood that come, since to journey hither from the more 
distant villages would cost more than the " present" would come 
to. 

On one occasion, the Captain saw a general collection of the tribe 
from all quarters, as far as the Red River settlement on the one 
hand, and Hudson's Bay on the other. There were in all about five 
thousand six hundred persons, men, women, and children. As usual 
they carried little or no food with them, and such a multitude soon 
exhausted the fish and game of the neighborhood. Terrible want 
ensued, and as the English authorities for some time refused any 
assistance, many were near starvation. Some families, to his knowl- 
edge, went three days without food ; others lived on small bits of 
maple sugar, which were divided with scrupulous accuracy. At last 
the officer in charge ordered some Indian corn and " grease" to be 
served out to them. The Captain was standing with the officers when 
this order was executed, and understood (though they did not,) the 
speech the chief made to his men on the occasion. " When strangers 
come to visit ms," said he, " we look round for the best we have, to 
offer to them. But we must take this, or starve." 

If it be said that the strict law of nations is not applicable to deal- 
ings with savages, any more than the municipal law to the manage- 
ment of children, — at least they should have the benefit of the 
principle. If we claim to stand in loco parentis with regard to them, 
we should show some parental solicitude for their welfare. But the 
poor savages fall between the two stools, and get neither law, equity, 
nor loving kindness at our hands. It is difficult to see, for instance, 
why the annual stipend should not be paid to the Indians at places 
in a measure convenient for them to receive it, say at La Pointe, on 
the American side, and Fort William, the Red River settlement, and 
the like on the Canadian, instead of practically cheating them out of 
it in this way. 



NARRATIVE. 129 

The settlement consists of a store-house on the beach, and a few 
neat whitewashed cottages along the top of the high bank, with their 
fronts overrun with vines. A little way back from the bluff was a neat 
Gothic church, of wood, not quite finished ; service was held in a 
small building bejond. The rock, which is Trenton limestone, and 
full of fossils, crops out everywhere in nearly horizontal strata. 

Soon after leaving this place we entered the Georgian Bay, so 
called, the Captain says, ever since he has known it, though one sees 
it named Lake Manitoulin, or Manitoulin Bay, on some maps. He 
commanded the first steamboat that plied between Penetanguishene 
and the Sault. The trip occupied four or five days ; they crept ' 
along the northern shore, stopping to cut wood where they wanted it, 
and lying by at night. 

High land was now in sight to the northward ; mountains of about 
twelve hundred feet elevation. The water is very deep, but from 
the number of islands and rocks, the navigation is dangerous, and it 
is necessary to anchor in case of fog. Sometimes no bottom can be 
had close to shore, and then they have to make fast to trees. Nor- 
thern Lights this evening. 

Aug. 21si. — We arrived at Penetanguishene early in the fore- 
noon, and remained there a short time to wood, &c. The wounded 
men were carried on mattresses to the Military Hospital. Near the 
entrance was a war steamer, moored at one of the Avharves. This 
vessel, in accordance with treaty, carries but one gun. The village 
is situated at the bottom of a deep narrow bay ; the shores on the 
right going in are low and covered witli» wood ; on the left, the ground 
rising and cleared for cultivation. The sight of fences and farm- 
houses here was more home-like than anything we had seen for some 
time. The place seems to be a thriving one, and it is thought the 
road from the lake to Toronto will ultimately commence here. The 
upper part of the bay, however, near the town, seems to be too shal- 
low to favor navigation. Judging from a slip of paper offering a 
reward for certain Indian curiosities, which was stuck up in one of 
the shops, there would seem to be some one here who has the good 
sense to look after the remains of the aboriginal inhabitants. 

The distance to Sturgeon Bay, where we were to leave the 
boat, is not great, but from the stop at Penetanguishene, and the 



130 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

crookedness of the course, it was two o'clock before we got there. 
On our arrival, we found some confusion. So large a number of pas- 
sengers had not been expected, for the travel on this route is very 
inconsiderable ; the boats being maintained principally by their con- 
tracts with the Post-office. 

The place consists of a small gap cut in the forest, large enough 
for a single rather neat frame-house and out-buildings. From it a 
dark lane, cut straight into the woods, was the road we were to take, 
a highway in its most primitive stages, as we found when, after some 
delay, we got oif in three large open wagons, into which we were 
stowed with our luggage, as close as cattle on the way to market. 

We found on our first landing a marked change both in the Fauna 
and the Flora. The woods are like those of Western New York in 
the size and species of the trees. We saw again red and sugar 
maples, red and white oaks, hop-hornbeam, beech, ash, basswood, 
sumach, &c., and among the birds we recognized the red-headed 
woodpecker and blue jay. 

The road for the first thirteen mUes was as bad as could be found, 
at this season of the year, on the continent, and we had to keep all 
the way at a walk. In the spring I should think it could be hardly 
passable by heavy wagons. For this distance, we saw no signs of 
habitation except a few scattered ruinous log-cabins, built by Indians, 
who had been encouraged to settle here, but who had long since 
deserted them. 

After that we began to meet clearings, growing more and more 
numerous as we approached Coldwater. At one of these we suc- 
ceeded in getting some excellent bread and milk, after convincing 
the mistress, a canny North-country woman, of our solvency. 

Coldwater is a decayed looking village, run to pigs, snake-fences 
and wide straggling streets. According to the Bishop, who as cura- 
tor of things spiritual in this district ought to know, the inhabitants 
have a very general antipathy to the article after which the place is 
called, whence perhaps their unprosperous condition. Beyond Cold- 
water we got on to higher land, where the road is better, and we 
mended our pace, but it was dark before we reached Orilla Landing 
on Lake Simcoe. 

Finding the steamer here, we went on board to engage our pas- 



NARRATIVE. 131 

sage, and were so much pleased with the appearance of things, that 
we resolved to pass the night there rather than at the tavern. 

Aug. 22cZ. — The Lake Simcoe District as it is called, is, it seems, 
already noted for its fertihty, particularly as a wheat country, 
although a large part of it is still uncleared. Judging from the 
growth of timber, the portion on Lake Huron must be at least equal 
to any of it. Patriotic and enthusiastic Sir Francis Head pronounces 
it the best land in North America ; but without going so far as this, 
it may probably approach that of the north-western part of New 
York. The immediate border of the lake is, as I understand, less 
fertile ; for this reason, probably, the forest is but sparingly inter- 
rupted by clearings. The lake is too large, and its shores too low 
and flat, to be beautiful ; but it is saved from monotony by numbers 
of wooded islets. Its height above Lake Huron is 152 feet. 

About noon we came to a river-like strait, with wide sedgy shores, 
which are said to afford capital duck and snipe shooting. Even at 
this time there were a few ducks. Arriving at Holland Landing, we 
found the same difficulty about conveyances to St. Albans, and most 
of us walked thither, three miles, sending our luggage by a wagon. 

The name St. Albans has an old-world sound, and the place 
itself had an old-world look, for, though a raw kind of village 
enough, yet there were, I think, five very nice saddlers' shops, a 
tailor " from London," with a very neat estaMishment, and other 
signs of a somewhat aristocratic element in the population, probably 
due to the number of retired British officers who have farms in the 
neighborhood, and still keep up the equestrian habits, and something 
of the attention to dress, that distinguish their nation and class. 
Even the pubhc houses were not " hotels," but " inns." 

After dinner we packed into two stages, which, however, would not 
contain our effects, so they had to follow after, whereby we were 
much delayed, and I lost my best Mackinaw blanket, faithful com- 
panion in the wilderness, purloined from the top of my trunk. 

The road beyond St. Albans is everywhere excellently well built, 
but the first part of it had been but recently macadamized, which 
reduced our pace to a walk. The country all the way is very pretty, 
neat villages and farm-houses increasing in number as we approached 



132 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Toronto, and all filled with troops of the rosiest children, and sur- 
rounded by fine orchards and corn-fields. The hay seemed in many 
instances at least to be stacked, in the English fashion, instead of 
being stored in barns. Vines and ornamental trees were beginning 
to be cultivated about the houses, though the prevalence of balsam- 
firs showed that they had not got far in this direction. The houses 
are sometimes of a very agreeable cream-colored brick, made in the 
neighborhood ; most frequently, however, rough-cast, upon lath, with 
a mixture of plaster, lime and coarse sand, which is said to stand 
perfectly well. The forest trees are principally white pines, some 
very fine specimens of which we saw along the road. These aiford 
employment to a number of steam saw-mills, and large quancities of 
lumber are exported from Toronto. 

The government lands here, I was told, are divided off into strips 
two lots deep, by parallel roads, and these being joined at certain 
intervals by cross lanes, the division of farms is rendered very sym- 
metrical. Probably, however, this necessitates the buying of an 
entire lot, or none at all ; at all events, we understood that for some 
reason or other the transfer of real estate is much hampered by the 
regulations of the Land Office. 

We arrived at Toronto by gas-light, and found nobody awake but 
a train of geese who were solemnly waddling across the street. 
We went to the Wellington Hotel, a very dirty and uncomfortable 
place. 

Aug. 23c?. — Our baggage did not arrive until this morning, fif- 
teen minutes before the boat for Queenston started. My compan- 
ions contrived to get on board, but I was left to pass the day in 
Toronto. My first move was to transport my effects to the North 
American House, somewhat better than the other, but very far from 
good. 

Toronto is very regularly built, of the cream-colored brick above- 
noticed, in some cases stuccoed. The streets are wide, and both 
carriageway and sidewalk made of plank, laid transversely. Many 
of the houses in the suburbs have extensive gardens and ornamental 
grounds, but in the city itself there are no buildings of much preten- 
sion to beauty, and very few attractive shops. 



NARRATIVE. 133 

Aug. 24:th. — Earlj this morning I took to the boat for Queens- 
ton, and thence by a very wretched railway reached Niagara to 
dinner. 

Aucf. 25th. — We went by the railroad to Lockport, to pay a visit 
to Colonel Jewett, the most warm-hearted of collectors of fossils. He 
showed us his collection as far as it was accessible, 'gave the Pro- 
fessor several specimens, and showed us where to pick up more for 
ourselves. At the quarry of hydraulic Hmestone we saw an interest- 
ing document for the geology of the drift-period. The soft rock was 
abundantly furrowed, from a direction a little west of north. One of 
these furrows gradually deepened, until it was interrupted by a suc- 
cession of horseshoe shaped hollows, sloping from the north, and deep 
and abrupt towards the south, showing that the furrowing mass was 
moving from north to south, and from some interruption had chipped 
out these bits. 

From Lockport we drove to the line of the railroad, and returned 
home by the same way as we came. 



END OP THB NARHATITB. 



LAXE SUPERIOR. 



PHYSICAL CHARACTER, VEGETATION, 
AND ANIMALS, 

COMPARED WITH THOSE OF OTHER AKD SIMILAR REGIONS. 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



I. 

THE NORTHERN VEGETATION COMPARED WITH THAT OF 
THE JURA AND THE ALPS. 



It is now universally known that living beings, animals and plants, 
are not scattered at random over the surface of the whole globe. 
Their distribution, on the contrary, is regulated by particular laws 
which give each country a peculiar aspect. We call climate the 
physical conditions which seem to regulate this distribution, however 
diversified the causes thus acting may be. The distribution of heat 
all the year round ; the mode of succession of temperature, either 
by sudden or gradual changes ; the degree of moisture of the atmos- 
phere ; the pressure of the air ; the amount of light ; the electric 
condition of the atmosphere ; all these and perhaps some other agents 
continually influence the growth of plants and the development of 
animals. The nature of the soil is no less powerful in its influence 
upon organized beings, though here also very difierent agents are 
considered under one head ; as the chemical properties of the ground 
are evidently as efficient as the physical. 

Let us for a moment examine these circumstances. Temperature 
seems to be the all-ruling power. With the returning smile of 
spring, vegetation bursts out with new vigor, and dies again as the 
cold of winter brings back its annihilating rigors. Under the hot 
sun of the tropics the beauty and variety of vegetation exceed all 
that is known in more temperate regions, whilst as we approach the 
polar plains we see it grow gradually less diversified and more dwarf- 

10 



138 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

ish, thus exhibiting all over the globe a close connection between 
the modifications of temperature from the equator to the poles, and 
the geographical distribution of vegetable and animal life. The 
more powerful influence of temperature upon vegetation does not, 
however, preclude the influence of other agents ; even the manner 
in which the same amount of heat is distributed over the earth in a 
given time, will produce difierences. It is well known, that coun- 
tries in which the summers are short but very warm, and the winters 
very long and cold, have a vegetation totally different from those 
where the seasons are more equable and succeed each other by 
gradual changes, although the mean annual temperature of both be 
the same. Next in importance we may perhaps consider the degree 
of moisture of the atmosphere, which differs widely in different re- 
gions ; the damp valleys of the Mississippi, for instance, present the 
most striking contrast with the rolling country farther west. Again, 
the swamps and the sandy plains, the rocky hills and the loamy soils, 
the snow-clad barrens and the frozen gravel of the North, even under 
circumstances otherwise most similar, afford the greatest diversity of 
\^egetation. There is still another way in which moisture may act 
in a particular manner ; as vegetation is not influenced simply by 
the annual amount of moisture, but also by the quantity of water 
that falls at one time, and the periods at which it falls. A low tem- 
perature in a moist climate will indeed produce some remarkable 
peculiarities ; for instance where early winters cause an extensive 
sheet of snow to be accumulated over the ground, and to protect 
vegetation from the destroying influence of frost ; as is the case in 
the Alps, where the most delicate flowers prosper admirably under 
their white blankets, and show themselves in full development as soon 
as the snow melts away, late in the spring, when the warm season is 
already fairly set in. Light, again, independently of heat, will also 
show its influence ; shaded places are favorable to plants which would 
be killed under the more direct influence of the rays of light. 

Atmospheric pressure would at first seem to have only a very sub- 
ordinate influence upon vegetation. But comparing Alpine vegetation 
with that of higher latitudes, which from their situation must have 
climates otherwise very similar, we shall be led to the conclusion that 
atmospheric pressure has its share in bringing about the diversity o f 



THE NORTHERN VEGETATION COMPARED, ETC. 139 

plants ; for though analogous, the flora of the high North is by no 
means identical with that of the most elevated Alpine ridges, over 
which vegetation continues to extend. The influence of atmospheric 
pressure seems to me particularly evinced in the great, I may say 
the prevailing number of Alpine species endowed with a volatile fra- 
grance which adds so much to the sweet and soothing influence of 
mountain rambles ; whilst the northern species, however similar to 
those of the Alps, partake more or less of the dullness of the heavy 
sky under which they flourish.* 

Whatever may be the intensity of other causes, and even when 
they are most uniform, the chemical nature of the soil acts perhaps 
as powerfully as the physical conditions under which the plant may 
grow. To be fully impressed with the important influence of the soil 
we need only be familiar with the diflerences noticed in the growth 
of wheat or other grains in different soils, or with the different aspect 
of pastures on rich or poor grounds, and to trace the same modifica- 
tions through any small tract of land with the view to understand 
similar changes over wider countries. f 

* It would be a mistake to ascribe to reduced atmospheric pressure the peculiar aspect 
of most plants in the higher Alps, as they are undoubtedly more influenced by the 
temperature, and especially by the pressure of the snow of those high regions. These 
plants are commonly covered with a thick and close down, which reminds us of the soft 
fur of the northern animals ; they creep for the most part attached to the compact and 
tenacious soil among the clefts of rocks, where their roots can penetrate and where they 
find shelter. Several of them have fleshy and succulent leaves, filled with liquid, 
derived rather from the atmosphere, than from the stony and dried soil upon which we 
generally find them. These phenomena of Alpine vegetation occur successively at a 
less considerable elevation the more we advance northwards, and show themselves on 
the plains towards the polar regions, where the temperature agrees with that of the 
high Alpine summits. The fact that many plants of the highest summits live very well 
at the foot of the glaciers which descend into the htwer valleys, would seem to show 
that atmospheric pressure has only a limited influence upon Alpine plants ; but the mo- 
ment we have satisfied ourselves that the most fragrant of these species never prosper 
below, we must admit that the relation between fragrance and atmospheric pressure to 
which I have alluded above, is well sustained. The Alpine plants are, it is well known, 
very difficult to cultivate ; Mr. Vaucher, at Fleurier, assisted by Mr. Lesquereux has 
however succeeded in bringing together a magnificent and numerous collection of spe- 
cies of the high Alps. In order to preserve them, they took care to harden and press 
the soil, or to introduce small blocks of limestone into it, and to cover them with snow 
in the spring, but especially to press the roots very often into the ground in the spring, 
as they are otherwise pushed out after every frost, and perish in a single day if care be 
not taken to put them again without delay into the ground. 

fThe chemical elements of the soil seem, however, to have less influence upon the 
geographical distribution of the large vegetables or phaenogames, than upon the cryp- 



140 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

To satisfy ourselves of the powerful influence of electricity upon 
vegetation, we need only remember the increased rapidity with which 
plants come forth, during spring, after thunder storms. 

Many other causes still more intimately connected with the aspect 
of our globe have also a great influence upon the distribution of the 
animals and plants which live on its surface. The form of continents, 
the bearing of their shores, the direction and height of mountains, 
the mean level of great plains, the amount of water circumscribed 
by land and forming inland lakes or seas, each shows a marked influ- 
ence upon the general features of vegetation. Small low islands, 
scattered in clusters, are covered with a vegetation entirely different 
from that of extensive plains, under the same latitudes. .The bearing 
of the shores again, modifying the currents of the sea, will also react 
upon vegetation. Mountain chains will be influential not only from 
the height of their slopes and summits, but also from their action 

togames. The attempts made to group the former according to the nature of the soil 
upon which they grow, have afforded no satisfactory results. It is otherwise when we 
consider the hydrodynamic capacity of the soil, that is to say, the property which it 
has to retain the water for a longer or shorter time. Tracing our investigations in 
this direction we arrive, on the contrary, at very important conclusions. A sandy 
desert and a peat-bog for instance, as the two extremes, have quite peculiar floriE, 
which stand completely isolated from the vegetation of soils whose essential component 
material is humus. This fact is in perfect accordance with recent discoveries in vege- 
table physiology, which seem to prove that plants extract nothing from the soil except 
water, or nourishment in a liquid state, and that their other components, the carbon 
in particular, are furnished them from the atmosphere. 

As we descend the scale, and arrive at the cryptogames, the chemical influence 
of the soil is gradually more and more felt in the distribution of the genera, and 
even of the species. The mosses even may be readily grouped according to the locali- 
ties where they live. The Orthotrichoe occur almost exclusively upon the bark of trees, 
and upon granite and limestone ; the Phascaceaj inhabit clayey soils, with the Gym- 
nostomeae, Pottieae, Funarieae and some Weissiee. The Sphagneae occur only in peat- 
bogs, or in waters charged with ulmic acid ; the Splachneae generally upon animal sub- 
stances in decomposition; the Grimmiere upon granitic rocks ; whilst the greatest num- 
ber of the Hypnums and Dicranums cover large surfaces of rotten vegetables. And 
if we take into consideration the modifications which temperature introduces in the 
habitation of some mosses, we are enabled to account even for the cosmopolitism of 
some species which, like the Bryums, would seem to be less influenced than others by 
the nature of the soil upon which they grow. 

The examination of the lichens which attach themselves commonly to the surface of 
■woods and rocks leads to conclusions still more striking. Some species live exclusively 
upon limestone ; others upon mica schist ; others upon various kinds of granite ; and 
others finally upon certain species of trees or other vegetables. The analysis of the 
substances upon which lichens live, has, if not completely explained, at least led to 
the understanding of the causes of the remarkable distribution of these plants. 



THE NORTHERN VEGETATION COMPARED, ETC. 141 

upon the prevailing winds. It is obvious, for instance, that a moun- 
tain chain like the Alps, running from east to west, and thus forming 
a barrier between the colder region northwards, and the warmer 
southwards, will have a tendency to lower the temperature of the 
northern plains, and to increase that of the southern, below or above 
the mean which such localities would otherwise present ; while the 
influence of a chain running north and south, like the Rocky Moun- 
tains and the Andes, will be quite the reverse, and tend to increase 
the natural differences between the eastern and western shores of 
the continent, and, laying open the north to southern influences and 
the south to thosi of the north, render its climate excessive, i. e., 
its summer warmer and its winter colder. 

Again, the equalizing influence of a large sheet of water, the tem- 
perature of which is less liable to sudden changes than the atmos- 
pheric air, is very apparent in the uniformity of coast vegetation 
over extensive tracts, provided the soil be of the same nature, and 
also in the slower transition from one season into the other along the 
shores ; the coasts having less extreme temperatures than the main 
land. The absolute degree of temperature of the water acts with 
equal power ; as the aquatic plants of the tropical regions, for in- 
stance those of Guyana, differ as widely from those of Lake Supe- 
rior, as the palms differ from the pine forests. * 

* One of the most prominent causes of the dispersion, not to say of the distribution 
of plants, is certainly the direction and the swiftness of water-courses. On one hand 
the rivers bring down from the summits or the elevated parts of the country a large 
number of plants and seeds, whjch are stopped and take root farther below, on their 
banks ; on the other, they spread in their neighborhood a greater or less amount 
of moisture. This is, I think, the best cause to assign to the uniformity of vegeta- 
tion over large plains, traversed by rivers, or to that of the sea-shores, or especially 
to that of the low islands and peninsulas of little extent. We must also admit, how- 
ever, that there are along the course of rivers a great variety of stations, which we 
may find nowhere else, valleys, abrupt rocks, shaded places, constantly or alternately 
lighted by the sun according to their bearing ; and that in this manner secondary agents 
may have their influence in varying greatly the aspect of vegetation. 

It is also a curious but positive fact, that high mountain chains have a direct influ- 
ence upon the dissemination of the species over the neighboring secondary chains, 
even at a considerable distance. This fact is plainly shown in the Jura for instance, 
■where from the summits of the Dole to those of the Chasseral we observe a true Alpine 
vegetation, less and less abundant the more we recede from the Alps in one or another 
direction. At an equal elevation the summits of the northern Jura lose every trace of 
Alpine plants which we find so abundantly upon its southern summits, especially upon 
the ridges near the Alps, as the Dole, the Mount Tendre, for instance. The same takes 



142 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

But however active these physical agents may be, it would be 
very unphilosophical to consider them as the source or origin of the 
beings upon which they show so extensive an influence. Mistak- 
ing the circumstantial relation under which they appear/ for a causal 
connection, has done great mischief in natural science, and led 
many to believe they understood the process of creation, because 
they could account for some of the phenomena under observation. 
But however powerful may be the degree of the heat ; be the air 
ever so dry, or ever so moist ; the light ever so moderate, or ever 
so bright ; alternating ever so suddenly with darkness, or passing 
gradually from one condition to the other; these agents have 
never been observed to produce anything new, or to call into 
existence anything that did not exist before. Whether acting 
isolated or jointly, they have never been known even to modify to 
any great extent the hving beings already existing, unless under the 
guidance and influence of man, as we observe among domesticated 
animals and cultivated plants. This latter fact shows indeed that 
the influence of the mind over material phenomena is far greater 
than that of physical forces, and thus refers our thoughts again and 
again to a Supreme Intelligence for a cause of all these phenomena, 
rather than to so-called natural agents. 

Coming back from these general views to our special subject, it 
will be observed that North America must, a priori, be expected 
to have, in some parts, a very diversified vegetation, owing to the 
peculiarities of its natural geographical districts, and in others, viz., 
over its extensive tracts of uniform plains, a vegetation as uniform 
as anywhere in the world. 

The physical agents whose influence upon organized beings we 
have just examined, show a regular progression in their action, which 
agrees most remarkably with the degrees of latitude on one side, 
and the elevation above the level of the sea on the other. Hence 
the difference in the vegetation as we proceed from the tropical 
regions towards the poles, or as we ascend from the level of the 

place westwards. The list of Alpine species found upon the Dole amounts to one 
hundred, whilst upon the Weissenstein, where even the Anemones have disappeared, 
we find no other representative of that beautiful flora of the snow regions, than the 
s ole Erinus Alpintts. 



THE NORTHERN VEGETATION COMPARED, ETC. 143 

sea to any height along the slopes of a mountain. In both these 
directions there is a striking agreement in the order of succession of 
the phenomena, so much so, that the natural products of any given 
latitude may be properly compared with those occurring at a given 
height above the level of the sea ; for instance, the vegetation of 
regions near the polar circles, and that of high mountains near the 
limits of perpetual snow under any latitude. The height of this limit, 
however, varies of course with the latitude. In Lapland, at 67° north 
latitude, it is three thousand five hundred feet above the level of the 
sea ; in Norway at lat. 60° it is five thousand feet ; in the Alps at 
lat. 46° about eight thousand five hundred ; in the Himalaya at lat. 
30° over twelve thousand ; in Mexico at lat. 19° it is fifteen thou- 
sand ; and at Quito under the equator, not less than sixteen thousand. 
At these elevations, in their different respective latitudes, without 
taking the undulations of the isothermal lines into consideration, 
vegetation shows a most uniform character, so that it may be said 
that there is a corresponding similarity of climate and vegetation be- ■ 
tween the successive degrees of latitude and the successive heights 
above the sea. As a striking example I may mention the fact of the 
occurrence of identical plants in Lapland in lat. 67° at a height of 
about three thousand feet and less above the level of the sea, and 
upon the summit of Mount Washington in latitude 44° at a height 
of not less than six thousand feet, while below this limit, in the 
wooded valleys of the White Mountains, there is not one species 
which occurs also about North Cape. 

There is nevertheless one circumstance which shows that cUmatic 
influences alone, however extensive, taking for instance into account 
all the above-mentioned agents together, will not fully account for the 
geographical distribution of organized beings, as their various limits 
do not agree precisely with the outlines indicating the intensity of 
physical agents upon the surface of the earth. A few examples 
may serve to illustrate this remark. The hmit of forest vegetation 
round the Arctic Circle, does not coincide with the astronomical 
limits of the Arctic zone ; nor does it agree fully with the isother- 
mal hne of 32° of Fahrenheit ; nor is the limit of vegetation in 
height always strictly in accordance with the temperature, as the Ce- 
rastium latifolium and Ranunculus glacialis, for instance, occur in the 



144 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Alps as high as ten, and even eleven thousand feet above the level of the 
sea. Again, eastern and western countries within the same continent, 
or compared from one continent to the other, show such differences 
under similar climatic circumstances, that we at once feel that some- 
thing is wanting in our illustrations, when we refer the distribution of 
animals and plants solely to the agency of climate. But the most 
striking evidence that climate neither accounts for the resemblance 
nor the difference of animals and plants in different countries, may 
be derived from the fact that the development of the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms differs widely under the same latitudes in the 
northern and in the southern hemispheres, and that there are entire 
families of plants and animals exclusively circumscribed within certain 
parts of the world ; such are, for instance, the magnolia and cactus 
in America, the kangaroos in New Holland, the elephants and rhi- 
noceros in Asia and Africa, &c. &c. 

From these facts we may indeed conclude that there are other 
influences acting in the distribution of animals and plants besides cli- 
mate ; or perhaps we may better put the proposition in this form : 
that however intimately connected with climate, however apparent- 
ly dependent upon it, vegetation is, in truth, independent of those 
influences, at least so far as the causal connection is concerned, and 
merely adapted to them. This position would at once imply the 
existence of a power regulating these general phenomena in such a 
manner as to make them agree in their mutual connection ; that is 
to say, we are thus led to consider nature as the work of an intelligent 
Creator, providing for its preservation under the combined influences 
of various agents equally his work, which contribute to their more 
diversified combinations. 

The geographical distribution of organized beings displays more 
fully the direct intervention of a Supreme Intelligence in the plan 
of the Creation, than any other adaptation in the physical world. 
Generally the evidence of such an intervention is derived from the 
benefits, material, intellectual, and moral, which man derives from 
nature around him, and from the mental conviction which conscious- 
ness imparts to him, that there could be no such wonderful order in the 
Creation, without an omnipotent Ordainer of the whole. This evidence, 
however plain to the Christian, will never be satisfactory to the man 



THE NORTHERN VEGETATION COMPARED, ETC. 145 

of science, in that form. In these studies evidence must rest upon 
direct observation and induction, just as fully as mathematics claims 
the right to settle all questions about measurable things. There 
will be no scientific evidence of God's working in nature until na- 
turalists have shown that the whole Creation is the expression of a 
thought^ and not the product of physical agents. Now what stronger 
evidence of thoughtful adaptation can there be, than the various 
combinations of similar, though specifically different assemblages of 
animals and plants repeated all over the world, under the most 
uniform and the most diversified circumstances ? When we meet 
with pine trees, so remarkable for their peculiarities, both morpholo- 
gical and anatomical, combined with beeches, birches, oaks, maples, 
&c., as well in North America as in Europe and Northern Asia, 
under most similar circumstances ; when we find again representa- 
tives of the same family with totally different features, mingling so 
to say under low latitudes with palm trees and all the luxuriant 
vegetation of the tropics ; when we truly behold such scenes and 
have penetrated their full meaning as naturalists, then we are placed 
in a position similar to that of the antiquarian who visits ancient 
monuments. He recognizes at once the Avorkings of intelligence 
in the remains of an ancient civilization ; he may fail to ascertain 
their age correctly, he may remain doubtful as to the order in 
which they were successively constructed, but the character of the 
whole tells him that they are works of art, and that men, like him- 
self, originated these relics of by-gone ages. So shall the intel- 
ligent naturalist read at once in the pictures which nature presents 
to him, the works of a higher Intelligence ; he shall recognize in the 
minute perforated cells of the Coniferae, which differ so wonderfully 
from those of other plants, the hieroglyphics of a peculiar age ; in 
their needle-like leaves, the escutcheon of a peculiar dynasty ; in their 
repeated appearance under most diversified circumstances, a thought- 
ful and thought-eliciting adaptation. He beholds indeed the works 
of a being thinking like himself, but he feels at the same time that 
he stands as much below the Supreme Intelligence in wisdom, power 
and goodness, as the works of art are inferior to the wonders of 
nature. Let naturalists look at the world under such impressions 



146 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

and evidence -will pour in upon us that all creatures are expressions 
of the thoughts of Him whom we know, love and adore unseen. 

After these general remarks let us consider more closely the 
vegetation of the temperate and of the colder parts of North Ameri- 
ca, and compare it with that of the elevated regions forming in 
Central Europe th& ridge which separates the nations of German 
tongue from the Roman. In these notes I shall, however, limit my- 
self mostly to trees and forest vegetation, as this is the characteristic 
vegetation of those tracts of land, and only introduce now and then 
occasional remarks upon the other plants. It is indeed a peculiarity 
of the northern temperate regions all over the world, to be wooded, 
and to afford room for an extensive development of other plants 
only in those places where permanent accumulations of water ex- 
clude forests, where a rocky soil does not afford them a genial 
ground, or where artificial culture has destroyed them, introducing 
in their place agricultural products. 

A few families, however, constitute the whole arborescent vegeta- 
tion of temperate regions, and the uniformity of the forests all over 
that zone in the Old and New World is quite remarkable. In the 
first rank we find the Amentacege and Coniferge,with their various sub- 
families and tribes ; next to them maples, walnut, ashes, linden, wild 
cherries, &c., &c. In the special distribution of each of these fam- 
ilies, we observe, however, some peculiarities which will equally claim 
our attention. 

There is, for instance, a striking contrast within these limits, between 
the vegetation of Coniferse, which are evergreen, and that of Amen- 
tacege, Juglandese, Fraxineae, Acermse, Tihacege, &c., which lose their 
foliage in the fall. Again taken as a natural assemblage, the plants 
which constitute the northernmost forests are farther remarkable for 
covering extensive tracts of land with one and the same species, to 
the exclusion of others. Or else a few species are combined together 
in various ways, the Goniferge generally excluding the trees with 
deciduous leaves, or occurring together but rarely, and vice versa. 

In the warmer parts of the temperate regions, the diversity of 
forest trees with deciduous leaves is greater than farther north, 
■where Goniferge appear almost exclusively. Another difference is ob- 
served in the more continuous distribution of northern forests, while 



THE NORTHERN VEGETATION COMPARED, ETC. 147 

in the warmer climates of the temperate zone they alternate more 
frequently with shrubs or grazing grounds, with smaller plants grow- 
ing among them. Whatever may be the peculiarities which we 
observe in the details of this arrangement, there is, nevertheless, a 
remarkable coincidence between the vegetation of the plains from 
the middle latitudes northwards, and the vegetation of mountainous 
districts, especially in the Alps, as we ascend from the plains towards 
their snowy summits ; the same variety of Amentacege, Fraxineoe, 
Juglandeaa, Acerina3, Pomaceae, interspersed with corresponding 
shrubs, occur in the lower regions, while in the higher the Coniferae 
come in more extensively, to the almost entire exclusion of the 
others. 

The correspondence between this ascending forest vegetation, and 
the distribution of trees over the whole extent of the temperate 
zone, is so great, that it may be considered as a most positive and 
universal law. The Juglandese and various forms of Amentacese, 
especially those which produce eatable fruit, as the chestnuts, occur 
in the lower latitudes under the influence of a more genial climate, 
and disappear entirely below the parallels where agriculture ceases. 
So also we find them in the lower regions of mountainous countries. 
Farther north we have a variety of poplars, oaks, willows, maples, 
ashes, etc., interspread with pines, which begin to form more 
continuous forests, till they make room northwards for the almost 
uniform pine and birch forest, which covers in unbroken continuity 
the northern countries as far as tree vegetation extends ; and again 
in a similar succession we observe Amentacese, Acerinae, &c., &c.,in 
ascending higher and higher on the slopes of mountains, the conifer- 
ous trees gaining gradually the ascendency over those with deciduous 
leaves, until these disappear below the limit of perpetual snow. A 
more detailed comparison of this resemblance between northern and 
Alpine vegetation, will show that they agree in almost every respect, 
and that there are corresponding species under similar circumstances 
in different parts of the Old and New Worlds, following each other 
in the same succession from south to north, or from the plains to the 
mountain summits, modified only by those influences which constitute 
the contrasting peculiarities of the eastern and western shores of 
America, Europe and Asia ; but in the main agreeing most extensively 



148 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

over the whole range of forest vegetation throughout both continents. 
The tabular view of these plants which is given below, will at once 
show the correspondence and divergence. 

From these facts it might be inferred that the aspect of wooded 
lands, whether mountainous or level, would be very similar ; that 
in the northern regions, it compares in every respect with that of 
high mountain chains. Such an impression is almost universally 
prevalent among those who are conversant Avith these laws of the 
geographical distribution of plants, without having had an opportuni- 
ty actually to compare such countries. It having been my good 
fortune, after having been for years familiar with the vegetation of 
the Alps, to visit the northern regions of this continent within the 
limits of the temperate zone, I was at once struck with the great 
difference in the general aspect of their vegetation. Indeed, the 
picturesque impression is an entirely different one, and nevertheless 
the above-mentioned laws are correct ; b\it the fact is that the 
changes of mean annual temperature in this country take place at 
the rate of about 1° of Fahrenheit for every degree of latitude, or 
for every sixty miles ; or in other AvorOs, as we travel north or south, 
we reach successively every sixty miles, localities the mean annual 
temperature of which is 1° Fahrenheit lower or tiigher ; while in 
the Alps we meet, in ascending or descending, the same change of 
1° Fahrenheit in mean annual temperature, for every three hundred 
feet of vertical height ; so that we pass within the narrow limits of 
between six to seven thousand feet, from the vine-clad shores of the 
lakes of Northern Italy and Switzerland, to the icy fields of snow- 
mountains, whose summits are never adorned by vegetation ; a 
journey which can easily be performed in a single day. Whilst on the 
other hand from the 40th degree of northern latitude, where the mean 
annual temperature is nearly the same as that of the foot of the Alps, 
we find towards the northern pole a diminution of one degree of tem- 
perature for every degree of latitude, or for every sixty odd miles ; so 
that we should travel over twenty degrees of latitude, or more than 
twelve hundred miles from south to north, for instance, from Boston 
to Hudson's Bay, before passing over the same range of climatic 
changes as we do in one day in the Alps ; thus causing a narrow ver- 
tical stripe of Alpine flora to correspond to a broad zone of northern 



THE NORTHERN VEGETATION COMPARED, ETC. 149 

vegetation stretching over a widely-expanded horizon. So that not- 
withstanding the correspondence of species, we have in the first case, 
in the Alps, a rapid succession of highly-diversified vegetation, whilst 
in the other case, in northern latitudes, we have a monotonous uni- 
formity over extensive tracts of land, although the elements of the 
picture are the same. But it is a picture seen in a different perspec- 
tive : in one case we have a simple vertical profile, which in the 
other case is drawn out into disproportionate horizontal dimensions ; 
like the far-reaching shade of a steeple cast under the light of the 
setting sun, which may change all proportions, and destroy all resem- 
blance between the shade and the object itself, simply because it is 
so much elongated. Fantastic images presented at various distances 
before alight falling at various angles, may prepare us to understand 
these different aspects of the landscape, be it a wooded plain 
along a gentle slope, or a forest along a more abrupt mountain chain. 

There is another feature in the geographical distribution of organ- 
ized beings which deserves to be particularly noticed, and which con- 
tributes to increase the diversity of aspect of vegetation in any given 
part of the world. There are in all continents remarkable differ- 
ences between the vegetation of the shores of a continent, east 
and west, within the same latitude or the same isothermal line. The 
forests of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of temperate America 
are not altogether composed of the same plants ; we remark that in 
the East there will be a tendency in the different families to develop 
in different proportions, and perhaps with the addition or disappear- 
ance of one or two peculiar types ; for instance, the walnut family 
contains several more representatives on the eastern side of the con- 
tinent than on the western, and they prosper here in latitudes where 
in Europe there is only one introduced species of that family growing 
wild. Again, we find Liquidambar on the American side of the 
Atlantic, which has no representative either on the Pacific coast, 
or in Europe. This comparison might be traced farther, and we 
should see the same correlation even among the shrubs. 

But these indications will be sufficient for my object, which is to 
show that, although there is an intimate correlation between climate 
and vegetation, the temperature and other influences which consti- 
tute climate do not reveal the whole amount of causes which produce 



150 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

these differences, as they are repeated under the same isothermal lines, 
between the eastern and western shores of the Old World in the same 
order as along the eastern and western shores of North America ; 
so much so that the northern Chinese and Japanese vegetation coin- 
cides very closely with that of the Atlantic States, whilst that of the 
Pacific coasts of America and that of Europe agree more extensively. 

This picture would be incomplete did I not institute a farther com- 
parison between the present vegetation of those regions and the fos- 
sil plants of modern geological epochs. If we compare, namely, the 
tertiary fossil plants of Europe with those living on the spot now, we 
shall be struck with differences of about the same value as those 
already mentioned between the eastern and western coasts of the 
continents under the same latitudes. Compare, for instance, a list of 
the fossil trees and shrubs from Oeningen, with a catalogue of trees 
and shrubs of the eastern and western coasts, both of Europe, Asia, 
and North America, and it will be seen that the differences they ex- 
hibit scarcely go beyond those shown by these different floroe under 
the same latitudes. But what is quite extraordinary and unexpected, 
is the fact that the European fossil plants of that locality resemble 
more closely the trees and shrubs which grow at present in the east- 
ern parts of North America, than those of any other part of the 
world ; thus allowing us to express correctly the differences already 
mentioned between the vegetation of the eastern and western coasts 
of the continents, by saying that the present eastern American 
flora, and I may add, the fauna also,* and probably also that of 
Eastern Asia, have a more ancient character than those of Europe 
and of Western North America. The plants, especially the trees 
and shrubs growing in our days in this country and in Japan, are, 
as it were, old-fashioned ; they bear the mark of former ages ; a 
peculiarity which agrees with the general aspect of North America, 
the geological structure of which indicates that this region was a 
large continent long before extensive tracts of land had been lifted 
above the level of the sea in any other part of the world. 

The extraordinary analogy which exists between the present flora 

• The characteristic genera Lagomys, Chelydra and the large Salamanders with per- 
manent gills remind us of the fossils of Oeningen, for the present fauna of Japan, as 
well as the Liquidambar, Carya, Taxodium, Gleditschia, etc. etc. 



THE NORTHERN VEGETATION COMPARED, ETC. 151 

and fauna of North America, and the fossils of the miocene period 
in Europe, would also give a valuable hint with respect to the mean 
annual temperature of that geological period. 

Oenlngen, for instance, whose fossils of all classes have perhaps 
been more fully studied than those of any other locality, could not 
have enjoyed during that period a tropical or even a sub-tropical cli- 
mate, such as has often been assigned to it, if we can at all rely upon 
the indications of its flora, for this is so similar to that of Charleston, 
South Carolina, that the highest mean annual temperature we can 
ascribe to the miocene epoch in Central Europe must be reduced to 
about 60° Fah. ; that is to say, we infer from its fossil vegetation that 
Oeningen had, during the tertiary times, the climate of the warm 
temperate zone, the climate of Rome, for instance, and not even that 
of the northern shores of Africa. We are led to this conclusion by 
the following argument : — The same isothermal line which passes at 
present through Oeningen at the 47th degree of northern latitude, 
passes also through Boston, lat. 4:2°. Supposing now, (as the geolog- 
ical structure of the two continents and the form of their respective 
outlines at that period seem to indicate,) that the undulations of the 
isothermal lines which we notice in our days existed already during the 
tertiary period, or in other words, that the differences of temperature 
which exist between the wesiprn shores of Europe and the eastern 
shores of North America, were the same at that time as now, we shall 
obtain the mean annual temperature of that age by adding simply the 
difference of mean annual temperature which exists between Charles- 
ton and Boston, (12° Fah.,) to that of Oeningen, which is 48° Fah., 
as modern Oeningen agrees almost precisely with Boston, making it 
60° Fah. ; far from looking to the northern shores of Africa for an 
analogy, which the different character of the respective vegetations 
would render still less striking. The mean annual temperature of 
Oeningen during the tertiary period would not therefore differ more 
from its present mean, than that of Charleston differs from that of 
Boston. 

This old-fashioned look of the North American forests goes also to 
show the intimate connection there is all over the globe between the 
physical condition of any country, and the animals and plants pecuUar 



152 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

to it. But far from supporting the views of those who believe that 
there is a causal connection between these features of the creation, 
■we must, on the contrary, conclude from the very fact that there are 
so many special thoughtful adaptations for so long successive periods 
in their distribution, that those manifold relations could only be intro- 
duced, maintained and regulated by the continuous intervention of 
the Supreme Intelligence, which from the beginning laid out the plan 
for the whole, and carried it out gradually in successive times. 

What is true of plants is also true of animals ; we need only re- 
member that it is in North America that Lepidosteus and Percopsis 
are found ; that species of Limulus occur along the Atlantic shores ; 
and that Trigonia and Cestracion live in New Holland along palaeozoic 
rocks. 



II. 

OBSERVATIONS ON THE VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN 
SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 



The vegetation of the Northern shores of Lake Superior agrees so 
closely with that of the higher tracts of the Jura, which encloses the 
lower and middle zone of the subalpine region, that on glancing at 
the enumeration below, one is astonished to find so great a number 
of species entirely identical. Making full allowance for the influ- 
ence of the lake, and leaving out of consideration a small number 
of species peculiar to North America, there remains about Lake 
Superior a subalpine flora which is almost identical with that 
of Europe, with which it is here compared. Although this fact 
is very striking, it is nevertheless in accordance with the general 
laws of botanical geography, and is another proof that the vegeta- 
tion of the two continents becomes more and more homogeneous the 
more we advance northwards. 

I have divided the catalogue of the phaenogamous plants collect- 
ed about Lake Superior into four hsts : The first containing such 
plants as are really subalpine in their character, or correspond to 
those of the forests of the lower Alps ; * the second containing the 
plants of the lake proper, or the aquatic plants ; | the third comprising 
the plants purely American, | and the fourth the cosmopolitan plants, 
or those which extend beyond the subalpine region. In the different 

* Only sucli plants are introduced in the first list as have true representatives in 
Central Europe. 

t Lacustrine Flora; and Fauna; present so many peculiarities that it has been thought 
best to separate the plants of the lake, which are aquatic, from those of the main land 
enumerated in the first list. 

X Besides the plants which have true analogues in Europe, there are some about 
Lake Superior which are truly American types ; these constitute the third list. 
11 



154 I^AKE SUPERIOR. 

lists I have indicated as nearly as possible the analogous species 
whose location is the same in Europe.* 

SuBALPiNE Plants of Lake European Plants occurrtxg in 

Superior. the Subalpine Region. 

ranunculace^. 
Anemone parviflora Michx. Anemone sylvestris L. 

" multifida DC. In Europe the Anemones are for the 

most part alpine plants, but those 
" pennsylvanica L. only whose carpels are plumose, 

and which ought to be generally 
considered as a peculiar genus. 
Anemone sylvestris, the only 
European species which agrees 
with the American ones, occurs 
in the plains. 
Ranunculus repens L. Ranunculus repens L. 

" micranthus Nutt. Jura and Alps. In the Alps it 

rises to the height of 4,000 feet. 
Thalictrum Cornuti L.f Thalictrum minus L. Creux du S^ent. 

Actsa rubra Willd. Actaja spicata L. Woods of the high- 

" alba Bigel. er Jura. 

CTSTACEJE. 

Helianthemum canadense M. Helianthemum vulgare J. Pastures 

of the lower Alps and Jura. 

* All the plants enumerated below were collected by me and some of the gentlemen 
of our party, who took particular interest in the study of botany, as C. G. Loring, Jr., 
T. M. Lea, J. E. Cabot and Dr. Keller. They were for the most part determined on 
the spot with the excellent work of my friend Prof. Asa Gray on the Botany of the 
Northern United States. Afterwards my collection was revised by Dr. Gray himself, 
and by Messrs. Leo Lesquereux and Ed. Tuckerman ; the latter of whom examined 
the lichens with particular care, while Mr. Lesquereux revised more particularly the 
mosses, and furnished me with very minute information about the distribution of plants 
in Switzerland, to which I had myself paid a good deal of attention in former years. 
I owe it nevertheless to his contributions upon this particular point, that I have been 
able to carry my comparisons of the plants of Lake Superior and Central Europe so 
much into detail as I have done. Prof. Gray has also furnished me with very import- 
ant documents respecting the distribution of many species, beyond the regions I, have 
examined myself. The general views, however, derived from this study, as I have 
expressed them in the preceding and following pages, so far as they are new, are my 
own. 

f This and several other plants of this list have a rather extensive range southwards ; 
but this seems to be in accordance with the general direction of the mountain chains 
and the form of the American continent itself, in w ich both animals and plants pecu- 
liar to the arctic and temperate zones extend farther south, than their analogues in 
the Old World. 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 



155 



Lake Superior. 



Arabis petrasa L. 
" lyrata L. 
Sysimbrium canescens Nutt. 

Draba arabisans Mx.* 
Turritis glabra. 



Europe. 

cr uciferm. 

ArabIs petraaa L. Mts. of Auvergne. 

Sysimbrium pinnatlfidura DC. Cen- 
tral Alps. 
Drabra incana L. 
Turritis glabra L. 



Drosera rotundifolia L. 
" longifolia L. 



Oxalis acetosella L. 



DROSERACEjE. 



Drosera rotundifolia L. (^<^^* ^^gf °^ 
,, , . . -^ the higher 

longifoha L. ^ j^^.^^ - 



OXALIDEM. 



Oxalis acetosella L. Woods of the 
mountains. 



Parnassia palustris L. 



PARNASSIE.E. 



Parnassia palustris L. Meadows of 
the mountains. 



HYPERICINjE. 



Hypericum ellipticum Hook. 



Hypericum Elodes L. In peat bogs 
in Central Europe. 



CAR YOPHYLLA CEJE. 



Stellaria longipes Gold. 

" borealis Bigel. 
Cerastium arvense L. 
Sagina nodosa L. 
Alsine IVIichauxii Fenzl. 



Stellaria graminea L. Subalpine pas- 
tures. 
" uliginosa Murr. Peatbogs. 

Cerastium arvense L. 

Sagina nodosa L. r Lower 

Alsine stricta Wahl. Peat f Alps, and 

bogs ; Jura and Alps i t^^e high- 
° , ^ • l^er Jura. 

It is a remarkable fact, that the family of Caryophyllaceffi, so extensive in 
the alpine regions of Europe, has so few representatives about Lake Superior. 
The reason is, that the Caryophyllaceas, like the Cruciferje, belong for the most 
part, to the alpine flora properly, and to the flora of the jilains, and are missing 
in the subalpine, or intermediate regions. 



* A small species of Draba with yellow flowers, found at Michipicotin, was lost. 



156 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Lake Superior. 



Europe. 



ANA0ARD1ACE.E. 

Rhus Toxicodendron, and several oth- E.hus Cotinus L. does not correspond 
er species which were not collected. to any of the North American 

species. 



Acer saccharinum Wang. 
" spicatum Lam. 



Geranium carolinianum L. 



" robertianum L. 



Vicia americana Muhl. 
Hedysarum boreale Nutt. 

Lathyrus ochroleucus Hook. 



ACERINACEJE. 

Acer Pseudoplatanus L. Pastures of 
the higher Jura. This truly sub- 
alpine species ascends as high as 
the Pines (Abies excelsa and 
pectinata.) 

GERANIACEJE. 

Geranium dissectum L. Meadows of 
La Chaux de Fonds. 



robertianum L. 
where. 



Every- 



LEGUMINOSM. 



Vicia sylvatica L. Higher Vosges. 
Hedysarum obscurum DC. Alpine 

pastures. 
Lathyrus pratensis L. Common. 



ROSACE M. 



Cerasus pumila Mx. 

" pennsylvanica Lois, and var. 
borealis il/x. 

" serotina DC. 
Prunus americana Marsh. 
Spiraea opulifolia L. 

" salicifolia L. 

Agrimonia Eupatoria L. 
Geum rivale L. 
" macrophyllum Willd. 
" strictum Ait. 
Potentilla norvegica L. 
" tridentata Atl. 
" fruticosa L. 
" simplex Michx. 
" arguta Pursh. 



Cerasus avium L. Marks in the Ju- 
ra the limit between the region 
of the beech, (Fagus sylvatica,) 
and that of the pines. 

Prunus insititia L. Cultivated. 

Spiraea aruncus L. Mts. of the Jura. 
" salicifolia L. Mounts of Au- 
vergne. 

Agrimonia Eupatoria L. Mid. Jura. 

Geum rivale L. 

" montanum L. Alpine. 

Potentilla aurea L. Subalpine. 

( Creux du 
" caulescens i. -j -y- f 

" salisburgensis DC. " 
" nipestris L. Jura and 
Alps. 



VEGETATION" OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 



157 



Lake Superior. 



Europe. 



ROSACEA. 



Comaruin palustre L. Very abund't 

Fragaria vesca L. 
Rubus triflorus Rich. 

" strigosus il/x. Everywhere. 

" canadensis L. 
Rosa stricta Lindl. 
" blanda Ait. 

Sorbus americana DC. 

Amelanehier canadensis Torr. Sf Gr. 



Comarum palustre L. Abounds in 
the peat bogs of the higher Jura- 
Fragaria vesca L. Middle Jura. 
Rubus saxatilis L. Higher Jura. 

" IdjEus L. Everywhere in the 
Jura. 
Rosa alpina L. ^ Pastures 

" rubrifolia DC. C of the 
" tomentosa L. ) liiglier Jura. 
Sorbus Aucuparia L. The higher 

limit of the trees in the Jura. 
Amelanehier vulgaris DC. Middle 
Jura. 



The Malvacete are generally plants of warm countries. This family is not 
represented about Lake Superior by a single species, nor are the intermediate 
families between this and the Leguminosse. The Leguminosse themselves are 
very rare, since they are, like the Caryophyllacea?, plants of the higher Alps, or 
of the plain. The Rosacese, on the contrary, generally extensive in the sub- 
alpine regions of Europe, are also abundant around Lake Superior. 



ONAGRARI^. 



Circffia alpina L. 
Epiloblum angustifolium L. 

" coloratura Muld. 

" palustre L. 



Ribes prostratum L. §• Ait. 
" hirtellum Mx. ' 
" lacustre Pers. 
" oxyacanthoides H. 



Saxifraga Aizoon Jacq. 
" tricuspidata Retz. 



Circ?ea alpina L. Woods of the high- 
er Jura. • 
Epilobium angustifolium L. Forest. 

" tetragonum L. Moist places. 

" palustre L. Peat bogs. 



RIBESIEJS. 



Ribes petr£Eum Jacq. Higher Jura. 
" alpinum L. " " 

" Uva-crispa. " " 

" Grossularia L. In rocky places. 



SAXIFRA GEM. 



virginiensis Mx. 



Saxifraga Aizoon Jacq. Higher Jura 
" aizoides L. Alps, and lower 
Alps. 



158 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Lake Superior. Europe. 

SAXIFRA GEjE. 

Mitella nuda L. | These two species have no other analogues in Europe 
♦' diphylla L. ) than the Saxifraga rotundifolia, and the species similar 
to it. In genei'al, the Saxifragesa, which have few rep- 
resentatives about Lake Superior, belong to the alpine 
region, so that in order to meet them in the plain, we 
have to go as far as Greenland, where they are numer- 
ous. The species of the plains are represented in 
America by the genera SuUivantia, Heuchera, Mitella, 
and Tiarella. 

UMBELLIFERJS. 

Sanicula marilandica L. Sanicula europaea L. Creux du Vent. 

ArchangeUca atro-purpurea Hoff. Archangelica officinalis Hoff. Jura, 

also in the Valtellina. 
Osmorrhiza brevistylis DC. Chasrophyllum hirsutum L. Jura. 

Sium lineare Michx. Slum latlfolium L. 

ARALIACEjE. 

Aralia hispida Michx. This family has but one representative 

in Central Europe, Hedera 
Helix L. 

CORNAOEM. 

Cornus stolonifera Mx. Cornus sanguinea L. Middle Jura. 

CAPRIFOLI^. 

Linnjea borealis Gron. Linnsea borealis Gron. Lower Alps : 

Symphoricarpus occidentalis R. Br. Valais. 

T • -n T r Inthere- 

Lonicera parviflora Lans. Lonicera Caprifollum L. ^ion of 

" hirsuta Eaton. Var. Douglasii. " Periclimenum L. \ the vine- 

l_ yards. 
1^ " involucrata Spr. Saskatshew- " involucrata, Spr. Siberia L. 
an, Oregon, Rocky Moun- alpigena which resembles it 

tains, California. somewhat, occurs in the 

Jura and the Alps. 
Sambucus pubens Mx. Sambucus racemosa L. Cr. du Vent. 

Viburnum Opulus L. Viburnum Opulus L. Belongs in Eu- 

rope to the region of the beech. 
(Fagus sylvatica.) 
" pauciflorum Pyl. 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 



169 



Lake Superior. 



Europe. 



RVBIACEM. 



Galium trifidum L. 
" triflorum Mx. 



Galium rotundifolium L. "1 Character" 

A 1 J i 1 I istic of the 

Asperula odorata and Y u i • 

A ! subaipme 

" taurina L. J fjora. 



COMPOSITE. 



Eupatorium purpureum L. 

Aster corymbosus L. 
macrophyllus L. 
puniceus L. 
laxifolius Nees. 
ptarmicoides Torr. et Gray. 
graminifolius Pursh. 



Eupatorium cannabinum L. Common 
in wheat places. 



Aster alpinus L. Creux du Vent. 



Solidago virgaurea L. Yar. alpestris, 
which grows at Chasseron, and 
in the lower Alps. 



Of these six American species, the last is exclusively northern, and occurs 
as far as Labrador, to the pine region. It has its analogue in the fine Aster 
alpinus of the Creux du Vent, and of the lower Alps. The other species, 
more widely distributed, are represented in Europe by the Aster Amellus and 
A. salignus, L., which are plants of the plains. 

Erigeron philadelphicum L. Erigeron alpinum L. Creux du Vent. 

" strigosum Miihl. 
Diplopappus umbellatus Torr. §• Gr. 
Solidago stricta At. 

" bicolor L. 

" thyrsoidea E. Meyer. 

" arguta Ait. Var. juncea. 

" canadensis L. 

" lanceolata L. 

The genera Aster and Solidago are exceedingly numerous in America, where, 
on the contrary, the Inula and the Hieracium, which abound in Europe, are 
very rare. The same is the case with the Senecionidse, the Centaurese, and the 
Carduaceas, which are as few in America as they are numerous in Europe. 

Achillaea Millefolium L. Achillea Millefolium L. Var. setacea. 

Var. setacea. Declivities of the lower Alps, in 

the Valais. 
Tanacetum huronense Null. Tanacetum vulgare L. Chaux de 

Fonds. 



leo 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Lake Superior. 



Europe. 



COMPOSITE. 



Artemisia canadensis Mx. We might take as analogous of that plant in the 

subalpine flora of Europe, the Artemisia pontica, 
whioh grows in the Valais. But this approaches 
more the Artemisia maritima X., and belongs 
thus to the flora of the shores. 



Antennaria margaritacea R. Br. 
" plantaginifolia Hook. 

Senecio aureus L. 

" " var. Balsamitae 



Cirsium horridulum Mx. 
" muticum Mx. 



Hieraclum canadense Mx. 
" scabrum Mx. 



Antennaria margaritacea it. Br. Mt- 
Cenis. 

1 Three spe- 
I c'ies of the 
r subalpine 
I flora of the 
J Jura. 



Senecio viscosus L. 
" sylvaticus L. 
" sarracenicus 



Cirsium spinosissimum 
alpine Alps. 

Cirsium rivulare DC, 
" acaule L. 



Scop. Sub- 



Subalpine 
Alps, with 
■| several other 
" eriophorum Z.J species. 

Hieracium umbellatum L. \ g^b Alps 

" amplexicaule > and liigh- 

" Jaquiui DC. ) er Jura, 

with many other species. 



CAMPANULA CEuE. 



Campanula rotundifolia L. 

" " var. linifolia. 

" aparinoides PursJi. 



Campanula rotundifolia L, 



rhomboidalis L. This 



plant is one of the most extensive and the 
most characteristic of the subalpine region 
of the whole of Europe, and agree-? in its 
habitat with the Campanula aparinoides, but 
not in its forms. 



ERICACEJE, VAOCINIOEJE, ERICINEM, AND PYROLEJE. 



Vaccinium Oxycoccus L. 

" macrocarjion At. 

« Vitis Idiea L. 

" uliginosum L. 

" pennsylvanicum Lam. 

" caespltosum Mx. 

" canadense Kalm. 



Vaccinium Oxycoccus L. 

peat bogs. 
Vaccinium Vitis Idaea L. 
" uliginosum L. 

" Myrtillus L. 



Subalpine 

Forests of 
the high- 
er Jura. 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 
Lake Superior. Europe. 



161 



VAOCINIEjE. 



Cliiogenes Lispidula. Torr. §• Gr. 
Arctoitaphylos Uva-Ursi Spreng. 



Loiseleuria prociimbens Des. 

Andromeda polifolia L. 

Ledum latifolium At. 

Pyrola rotundifolia L. 

" asarifolia Mx. 
" chlorantha Sw. 
" s'eciinda L. 

Monotropa uniflora L. 

Moneses uniflora Salisb. 

Chimaphila umbellata Nutt. 



Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi Spreng. La 
Tourne, higher Jura, and lower 
Alps. 
Loiseleuria procumbens Des. Pas- 
tures of the Alps. 
Andromeda polifolia L. Peat bogs of 

the higher Jura. 
Ledum palustre L. Peat bogs of the 

North. 
Pyrola rotundifolia L. Pastures and 
forests of the Jura. 
" rosea L. Forests. 
" chlorantha Sw. Forests. 
" secunda. L. Woods of the 
higher Jura. 
Monotropa hypopythys L. In the for- 
ests of the Jura. 
Moneses uniflora Salish. Woods of 

the Vosges. 
Chimaphila umbellata Nutt. Forests 
of the Vosges. 



No family is more homogeneous in its distribution, or more equally spread in 
the North of America and Europe, than that of the Ericaceas, which charac- 
terizes rather the region of the pines than the subalpine flora ; for these species 
follow the pine forests in their more or less elevated stations. 



Plantago major* L. 

Primula mistassinica MicTix. 
" farinosa L. 

Trientalis americana Pursh. 



PLANTA GINEjE. 

Plantago major L. Kich, moist soil. 

PRIMULACEjE. 

Primula farinosa L. Marshes of the 

North. Higher Jura. 
Trientalis europasa L. Damp forests. 



OROBANCHEJE. 



Aphyllon uniflorum Torr. Sf Gr. 



Orobanche epithymum L. And sev- 
eral other species abundant on 
the declivities of the Jura. 



* Can scarcely have been introduced where it was found. 



162 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Lake Superior. Europe. 

UTRIOULARIEjE. 

Pinguicula vulgaris L. Sub-Alps and 
Jura. 

SPR OPHULARINEM. 

Veronica scutellata L. Peat bogs, 
Jura, and Sub- Alps. 

Euphrasia officinalis L. Pastures of 
the Jura. 

Khinanthus Crista-galli. Var. minor. 
Pastures of the Sub-Alps and 
high Jura. 

Melampyrum pratense L. Pine for- 
ests. 

LABIATE. 

Clinopodium vulgare L. Dry decliv- 
ities of the Jura- 
Prunella vulgaris L. do. 
Scutellaria galerieulata L. Shores of 

the Lake Etailleres, high Jura. 
Stachys alpina L. Subalpine. 
Mentha arvensis L. Moist grounds. 
Dracocephalum Euyschiana L. In 
Wallis. 

ABPERIFOLIM. 

Cynoglossum montanum L. Creux 

du Vent. 
Pulmonaria angustifolia L. High Jura. 

GENTIANE^. 

Gentiana punctata L. 
" rubra L. 
" acaulis L. 

" Pneumonanthe L. And sev- * 
eral other species of Gentiana, 
which characterize the subalpine 
declivities. 
Menyanthes trifoliata L. Marshes of 

the mountains. 
Swertia perennis L. Peat bogs of the 
hish Jura. 



Pinguicula vulgaris L. 

Veronica scutellata L. 

Euphrasia officinalis L. 

Rhinanthus Crista-galli. - 
Var. minor. L. 

Melampyrum pratense L 
Clinopodium vulgare* L. 



Prunella vulgaris L. 
Scutellaria galerieulata L. 

" lateriflora L. 

Stachys aspera Mx. 
Mentha canadensis L. 
Dracocephalum parviflorum Nutt 



Cynoglossum virginicum L. 
Mertensia pilosa D C. 

Gentiana alba Miihl. 

" saponaria L. VarFrblichii 



Menyanthes trifoliata L 
Halenia deflexa Griseb. 



* Probably native where it was found. 



VEGETATION OP THE NORTHERN SHORES. 163 
Lake Superiok. Europe. 

OLEACEM. 
Fraxinus sambucifolia Lam. Fraxinus excelsior L. 

The Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and the Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) are, 
■with the Pines, the trees which ascend highest in the mountains of Central 
Europe. 

CHENOPODEJE. 

Corispermum hyssopifolium* L. Corispermum hyssopifolium L. Cau- 

casus. 

POLYGONE^E. 

Polygonum vivlparum L. Polygonum viviparum L. 

" cilinode Mx. " Convolvulus L. 

" sagittatum L. 

Polygonum viviparum is the most extensively spread in the subalpine pas- 
tures, and the most characteristic of that region. It is also very common about 
Lake Superior. The same is also true of Empetrum nigrum L., which marks 
the higher limit of the pine region. 

EMPETREM. 

Empetrum nigrum X, Empetrum nigrum L. Region of the 

pine trees. — Higher Jura and 
Sub- Alps. 

CUPULIFERM. 

Quercus rubra L. A few dwarfish 

specimens occur south of ISIich- 

ipicotin. 
Fagus ferruginea Mx. Begins to lose Fagus sylvatica L. Grows dwarfishly 

its majestic appearance, and and disappears in the subalpine 

forms only meagre forests as regions of Europe. 

far north as ]\lackinaw. 
Corylus rostrata Ait. Corylus Avellana. L. Forests of the 

Jura. Everywhere. 

* I found this plant on the northernmost shore of Lake Superior, near the entrance 
of Nepigon Bay. Sir W. Hooker mentions it from the Saschatchewan, Athabasca, and 
Red River. 



164 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Lake Superior. 



Betula papyracea Ait. 
" excelsa Ait. 

" puraila L. 
Alnus incana Willd. 

" virldls DC. 



Europe. 

BETULACEjE. 

Betula pubescens Pall. High Jura. 
" nana L. Peat bogs of the high 
Jura. 

Alnus glutinosa L. Valleys of the 
Jura. 
" viridis DC. The Handeck, in 
the Bernese Alps. 



SALICINEjE. 

Salix pedicellaris Pursh and others. For the willows and poplars, which 

are rather extensively distributed 
aquatic plants, see the second list. 

About Lake Superior the Amentacete are represented only by species of 
cold countries, or subalpine regions, and are, with a few exceptions, the same 
as those of Europe. The Quercus rubra is scarcely an exception, since the 
Quercus pedunculata ascends the valleys of the high Jura ; we find very large 
trunks of it in the marshes of the Verrieres, on the frontier of France and 
Switzerland. 

ULMA CEJE. 

Ulmus fulva L. Ulmus efFusa Willd. Banks of the 

" americana L. Doubs. 



Humulus Lupulus L. 
Urtica canadensis L. 



Pinus Strobus. L. 
" resinosa L. 
" Banksiana Lamb. 



URTICACEjE. 

Humulus Lupulus L. Hedges of Val 
de Travers. 

Urtica dioica L. Everywhere. 
These two species spread diversely 
in various regions, and have no- 
thing characteristic. 

CONIFERJE. 

Pinus sylvestris L. Declivities of the 

Jura. 
" Pumllio Clus. Peat bogs of the 

higher Jura. 
" Cembra L. Declivities of the 

Alps. Handeck. Glacier of 

the Aar. 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 



165 



Lake Supekior. 

Abies alba Mx. 

" canadensis Mx. 

" nigra Poir. 

" balsamea Marsh. 

Larix americana Mx. 
Thuja occidentalis L. 
Junlperus communis L. 
" virginlana L. 
Taxus canadensis Willd. 



Europe. 

coniferm. 

Abies excelsa DC. Forests of the 
Jura. 

" pectinata DC. Forests of the 
Jura 
Larix europea DC. High Jura. 



Juniperus communis L. >. 

Sabinai. [- ^j'J^f j'jf 
Taxus baccata L. ) 



The resemblance of the Coniferse of Lake Superior to those of the subal- 
pine region is very striking, for though they are not of the same species, the 
analogy of the forms is so great, that it requires the eye of a botanist to be satis- 
fied positively that these forests are not composed of identical trees in the two 
hemispheres. 

alisi\iaceje:. 

Triglochin elatum Nutt. 



Mcrostylis ophioglossoides Nutt. 

Corallorhiza multiflora Nutt. 
" Macrsei* Gray. 

Gymnadenia tridentata Lindl. 
Platanthera psycodes Gr. 

" orbiculata Lindl. 

" Hookeri Lindl. 

" dilatata L. 

" obtusata Lindl. 

Goodyera repens R. Br. 

" pubescens R. Br. 
Listera cordata R. Br. 
Cypripedium pubescens WUld. 

" acaule Ait. 



See also the second list. 

ORCHIDEX. 

Microstylis monophyllos Lindl. In the 

Sub-Alps. 
Corallorhiza innata R. Br. Pine forests 

in the Sub- Alps. Creux du Vent. 
Gymnadenia conopsea L. 
Platanthera bifolia Rich. 



Goodyera repens R. Br. 

Listera cordata R. Br. Sub-Alps. 
Cypripedium Calceolus L. 



* " CoEALLORHizA MACE.'Er (sp. nov.) : scapo multifloro ; floribus (pro genere maxi- 
mis) brevissime pedicellatis ; petalis ovali-oblongis ; labello ovali integerrimo basi 
utrinque auriculato-inflexo, palato prominulo subbilamellato in plicam antice produc- 
tam desinente ; calcare plane nullo ; columna subalato-triquetra ; capsula ovoidea. 
In umbrosis humidis ad ' Caledonia Springs,' Canada Occidentali detexit beatus W. F. 
Macrae, ann. 1843, exemp. fructif. Nuper in insula 'Mackinaw' floriferam legerunt 
celeb. Agassiz et C. G. Loring, Jr. — Radix ignota. Scapus pedalis. Flores purpuras- 
centes : sepala et petala seiniunciam louga !" A. Gray. 



166 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



These Orcliidese, and several more wbich correspond by their forms to those 
of Europe, or are even identical with them, characterize all the subalpine re- 
gions. The Orchidese are among the most characteristic plants, in a geographi- 
cal point of view, for their forms vary in a striking manner, the more we 
descend towards the warmer latitudes, where they assume more and more 
brilliant colors, whilst their flowers become larger and more diversified. 



Lake Superior. 



Smilacina racemosa Desf, 
" stellata Desf. 
" bifolia Ker. 



Allium schoenoprasum L 



LUium philadelphicum L. 

Streptopus amplexifolius DC. 
Tofieldia glutinosa Willd. 
" calyculata WahL 



Scirpus casspitosus L. 

" Eriophorum Mx. 
Erlophorum alpinum L. 



" virginicum L, 

Carex trisperma Dew. 
" canescens L. 
" straminea Schk. 
" oligocarpa ^chk. 
" aurea Nutt., var. 
" bicolor All. 
« Vahlii L. Var. elata. 



Europe. 



SMILAOINEJS. 



Convallaria multiflora L. •) ,,.,,, 

. " . Polygonatum L. [ j\^^^ 
Smilacina bifolia Ker. ) 

LILIA CEJE. 

Allium schoenoprasum L. Common in 

the Alps to the height of 7000 

feet. 
Lilium Martagon L. Pastures of the 

Sub- Alps. 
Streptopus amplexifolius DC. High 

Jura. 
Tofieldia calyculata Wahl. Pastures 

of the Sub- Alps and high Jura, 

Creux du Vent, &c. 
OYPERACEJE. 

Scirpus cEBspitosus L. Peat bogs of 
the higher Jura. 

Eriophorum alpinum L. This plant 
and the preceding are very char- 
acteristic of the peat bogs of the 
high Jura. 



Carex bicolor All. In the highest 
Alps, in grazing places, occurs 
also in Labrador. 
" Vahlii L. Found in Lapland 
Occurs also in Greenland. 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 



167 



Lake Superior. 



Europe. 



GRAMINEJE. 



Alopecurus aristulatus Mx. 
Phleum alpinum L. 



Cinna pendula Trin. 
Agrostis scabra Willd. 

Mulilenbergia sylvatica T. et Gr. 
Calamagrostris arenaria Trin. 

" canadensis P. de Beaur. 
Oryzopsis canadensis Torr. 
Reboulea pennsylvanica Gr. 
Spartina cynosuroides Willd. 
Glyceria fluitans R. Br. 

" aquatica Smith. 

" nervata Tr. 
Poa alpina L. 



" serotina Erh. 
Festuca ovina L. 



Alopecurus pratensis L. Meadows of 

the Jura. 
Phleum alpinum L. Pastures of the 
Sub-Alps. 
" Mleheli. L. Summit of the 
Chasseron. Highest ridge of 
the Jura. 



Agrostis vulgaris Willd. 
" alba, et 



High Jura. 



Calamagrostis arenaria Trin. North- 
ern shores. 
" baltica. Skr. Baltic. 



Glyceria fluitans 7t. 5r. Brooks of the 
Jura. 
" aquatica Smith. Brooks of 
Jura. 

Poa alpina L. One of the most char- 
acteristic plants of the subalpine 
regions. 

Festuca ovina L. Peat bogs. 



Bromus secalinus* L. (Introduced ?) Bromus secalinus L. Fields of the 

Jura. 
Triticum repens L. Triticum repens L. In sandy places. 

" dasystachyum Gray. 
Elymus canadensis L. Var. glaucifolius. Elymus europseus L. Forests of the 

high Jura. 
" mollis R. Br. Judging from its form, this species is 

rather a plant of the shores. 
Hordeum jubatum L. Hordeum murinum L. 



* I could not discover indications of this plant having been introduced where it was 
found. However, even an accidental landing might account for the presence of a 
plant which can scarcely be a native of the northern shores of Lake Superior. 



168 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Lake Superioh. 

Aira flexuosa L. 
Trisetum molle Kunth. 

Phalaris arundinacea L. 

Hierochloa borealis Rom. &c Sck. 

Milium effusum L. 

Equisetum sylvaticum L. 

" arvense L. 

" limosum L. 

Struthiopteris germanica Willd. 

Polypodium Dryopteris L. 

Pteris aquilina L. 

AUosorus gracilis Presl. 
Cystopteris bulbifera Bernh. 
Woodsia ilvensis R. Br. 
Dryopteris dilatata Gray 

" intermedia Gray. 
Botrychium virginicum Swartz. 
" Lunaria L. 



Europe. 

gramineje. 

Aira flexuosa L. Sub- Alps. 

Avena flavescens L. Subalpine mead- 
ows. 

Phalaris arundinacea L. Banks of the 
brooks of" the Jura. 

Hierochloa borealis Ftom. ^' Sch, 
Northern Europe. 

Milium effusum L. Characterizes the 
subalpine forests. 
EqVISETACEJE. 

Equisetum sylvaticum L. Woods of 
the high Jura. 
" arvense L. 

" limosum L. Brooks of the 
Jura. 

FILIOES. 

Struthiopteris germanica Willd. 

^Mountains of the Vosges. 
Polypodium Dryopteris L. Creux du 

Vent. 
Pteris aquilina L. Woods of the 

Jura. 
AUosorus crispus P. 
Cystopteris fragills B. 
Woodsia ilvensis R. Br. 
Dryopteris dilatata Gray. Higher 

Jura. 



Botrychium Lunaria L. Summit of 
the Jura. 



Lycopodium lucidulum Mx. 
" inundatum L. 

" annotinum L. 

" dendroideum Mx, 

" clavatum L. 

•' complanatum L. 



LYCOPODIACEM. 

Lycopodium Selago L. Higher Jura. 

" inundatum L. Marshes 

of the higher Jura. 

" annotinum L. Summit 

of the Jura, Creux du 
Vent, etc. 

" clavatum L. Higher Ju- 

ra. 

♦♦ complanatum L. Higher 

Vosges. 



VEGETATION OP THE NORTHERN SHORES. 



169 



Lake Superior. 

Selaginella selaglno'ides Spring. 
" rupestris Spring. 



Europe. 

Selaginella selaginoides Spr. Pastures 
of the lower Alps and the higher 
Jura. 



The Equisetaceae, the Ferns, and the Lycopodiacese of Lake Superior are 
almost absolutely the same species as those of the subalpine region of Europe. 
As we descend the scale of the vegetable kingdom under higher latitudes, vege- 
tation seems to follow the sides of an angle, as it were, which become convergent 
about the zone of pine forests. Thus the Lichens and the Mosses are already 
entirely the same species here as in Europe, and it will be sufficient to make a 
single list of them, without indicating the corresponding European species, 
since all are identical. Few Hepaticce are also enumerated. 



Mosses of Lake Superior. 
Sphagnum capillifolium Brid. 
" cuspidatum Brid. 

" squarrosum Hedw, 



Funaria hygrometrica L. 
Grimmia apocarpa 

Var. rivularis B. et S. 
Hedwigia ciliata Hedw. 
Orthotrichum Hutchinsise H. et T. 
" strangulatum Beauv. 



*' leiocarpum B. et S. 

" anomalum Hedw. 

Ceratodon purpureus Brid. 
Dicranum scoparium Hedw. 
" undulatum Ehrh. 
" congestum Brid. 



Schraderi W. et M. 
fulvum Hook. 
longifolium Ehrh. 
virens Hedw. 
polycarpum Brid. 



majus Turn. 

glaucum L. 
12 



Localities in the Jura. 
Peat-bogs of the high Jura. 

u (( u u u a 

Peat-bogs of the Vosges and Hartz. 

This species belongs to the granitic 

peat-bogs. 
Grows everywhere. 

Dripping rocks in the Alps and Jura. 

Everywhere on granite. 

(( (( (( 

Is missing in Europe, but replaced in 

the forests by a great number of 

analogous species. 
Forests. 
Stones. 
Everywhere. 
Forests. 
Moist forests. 
Forests of the higher Jura; descends 

never in the middle region of the 

pine forests. 
Peat-bogs of the higher Jura. 
Forests of the Alps. 
Granitic blocks. 

Forests of the Alps and higher Jura. 
Fissures of rocks, and the forests in 

the Alps. 
Higher Jura ; descends never in the 

middle region. 
Peat-bogs of the Jura. 



170 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Mosses of Lake Superior. 
Distichum inclinatum B. et S. 

" capillaceum B. et S. 

Encalypta ciliata Hedio. 
Pogonatum alpinum Brid. 
Polj'trichum formosum Hedw. 
" piliferum Hedzv. 

" juniperinum Hedw. 

Bartramia pomiformis Hedw. 

" Oederi Brid. 

" fontana L. 
Aulacomnium palustre Br. 
Bryum pseudo-triquetrum L. 
" nutans L. 
Var. elongatum B. et S. 
Mnium cuspldatum Hedw. 
Hypnum Schreberi Willd. 

" tamariscinum Hedw. 

" splendens Hedw. 

" aduncum L. 

" uncinatum Hedw. 

" cupressiforme L. 

" Crista-castrensis L. 

" abietinum L. 

" nitidulum L. 
Neckera intermedia Hedw. 
Marchantia polymorpha L. 
Jungermannia barbata Hook. 
Ptilidium ciliare. Nees. 



Localities of the Jura. 

Summits of the Jura. Declivities of 

the Alps. 

Fissures of the rocks. Subalpine re- 
gions. 

On the ground in the higher Jura. 

Sub-Alps. 

Woods of the mountains. Everywhere. 

Granite in the Vosges and Alps. 
Rocks of the Jura. 
Everywhere near springs. 
Peat-bogs of the higher Jura. 
Moist places in the forests. Every- 
where. 
Elevated peat-bogs. 
Skirts of the forests. 
Pine forests. 



Moist places. 
Pine forests. 



Enumeratio Lichenum a D. Prof. Agassiz ad Lacum Superiorem, anno 
1848, lectorum, ab Edvo. Tuckerman, Cantabr. 

Vidi olim in Museo Parisiensi aliquot plantas a D. Comite de Castelnau in 
itinere suo ad Lacum Superiorem decerptas, inter quas Lichenes decern inse- 
quentes reperi : — 

Usneam barbatam, Var. pendulam. 

Everniam jubatam Fr. 

Ramalinam calicarem /*. Fr. 

Cetrariam islandicam Ach. 

C. glaucam Ach. 

C. lacunosam ^ Atlanticam Tuck. 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 171 

Stictam pulmonariam Ach. 
Parmeliam saxatilem Ach. ' 
P. caperatam Ach. 
Cladoniam rangiferinam Hoff. 

Hisce primitiis incrementura attulit, quantum scio, nemo usque donee oras 
insulas(i[ue Lacus perlustrans Professor noster illustriss. Agassiz, dum plantarum 
nobiliorum distributionem geographicam persequitur, Lichenum etiam, hac in re 
multum adjuvantibus discipulis ejus commilitonibusque, viris amicissimis J. E. 
Cabot, J. M. Lea, C G. Loring, and Dr. Keller, — messem satis largam fecit 

Has igitur opes Lichenosos, mihi benevolentia V. ill. mandatos, pro viribus 
explicare pergam. 

LICHENES. 
USNEA. 

1. harhata Fr. var. dasypoga, Fr., infert. 

2. longissvma Ach., cum ceplialodiis. 

3. cavernosa Tuckerm. mss. Thallo pendulo laxo molli glaberrimo tereti- 

compresso plus minus cavernoso ochroleuco, ramis primoribus simpli- 
ciusculis subventricosis attenuatis ad apices dichotome ramosis, ramulis 
ultimis tenuissime capillaceis ; apotheciis sessilibus radiatis disco albi- 

do-pruinoso demun subcarneo margine obscuriori evaiiescente. 

H AB. ad arbores in oris Lacus Superioris ; C. T. Jackson, 1 845 ; 
Agassiz, 1848. Ipse legi sterilem in Montibus Albis, anno 1843. 
Specimen habeo omnibus conveniens e Madras, Ind. Orient., ex Hb. 
Hook. 

Thalli rami majores e subtereti demum compressi, angulati annula- 
tim rupti, lacunis regularibus subellipticis plus minus insignes, apici- 
bus dichotomis elongatis teretiusculis tenuissime demum capillaceis. 
Apothecia omnino Usneae, at discus strato gonimo viridi impositus ! 
albido-pruinosusque ! Hos characteres Usneis a Friesio plane dene- 
gatos, lis primum tribuit Montague (Annales 1834, t. 2, p. 2, p. 368, 
and Cryptog. Canar. in Webb & Berth. Hist. Nat. d. lies Canar., p. 
93). Ex observatlonibus Montagnei U. ceratina discum habet pru- 
inosum, et U U. Jamaicensis Ach., et Ceruchis Montag., discum 
pruinosum strato gonimo impositum. Species nunc descripta pluribua 
notis cum U. Ceruchi (Americae tropicae adhuc privte, a Montagneo 
(Ann. 1. c.) luculentissime llustratae) couvenit ; distat facie, statuque 
(normali ut videtur) pendulo. Disci characteribus jam laudatis facil- 
lime distinguenda est U. cavernosa ab omni (ni fallor) Usnea boreali- 
americana. 

EVERNIA. 

1. jubata Fr. /*. chalyheiformis Ach., inf. 

y. implexa Fr., infert. 

2. Prunastri Ach., infert. 



172 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Ramalina. 

1. calicaris Fr. ^. fastigiata Fr., fert. 
§. farinacea Sch., fert. 

Cetraria. 

1. islandica Ach. y. crispa Ach., fert. 

2. nivalis Ach., infert. 

3. glauca Ach. (*. sterilis Fr., infert. 

4. ciliaris Ach., fert. 

6. lacunosa, /*. atlantica Tuck., fert. 

6. Oakesiana Tuckerm., infert. 

7. Pinastri Sommerf., infert. 

Peltigera. 

1. aphthosa Hoffm., fert. 

2. canina, HoiFm. fert. 

3. rufescens Hoffm., fert. 

4. pohjdactyla Hoffm., infert. 

5. horizontalis Hoffm., infert. 

SoiiORINA. 

saccata Ach., fert. 

Sticta. 

1. pulmonaria Ach,. infert. 

2. linita Ach., infert. 

4. glomerulifera Delis., fert. 

Pakmelia ; subsect. Imhricaria. 

1. perlata Ach., infert. 

2. tiliacea Ach., fert. 

3. Borreri Turn. |*. rudecta Tuckerm., infert 

4. saxatilis Ach., fert. 

5. aleurites Ach., infert. 

6. physodes Ach , infert. 

7. olivacea Ach., fert. 

8. caperata Ach., fert. 
9 conspersa Ach., fert. 

10. centrifuga Ach., fert. 

11. parietina, y. rutilans Ach., fert. 
Subsect. Physcia. 

12. speciosa Ach., fert. 

13. stellaris Ach. a. fert 
Subsect. Placodium. 

14. saxicola Ach., fert. 

15. chrysoleuca Ach., fert. 

16. elegans Ach., fert. 



VEGETATION OP THE NORTHERN SHORES. 173 

Subsect. Patellaria. 

1 7. suhfusca Fr. /«. distans Fr. 

18. alhella Ach. 

19. ocrina Ach. 
Subsect. Urceolaria. 

20. encodes, Tuckenn. mss. Thallo crustaceo tartareo (farinoso-pulvera- 

lento) contiguo rimoso-areolato ambitu verrucososubplicato glauco- 
albicante; apotheciis innatis mox protrusls sessilibus disco pruinoso 
demum protuberante nigro margine proprlo tenui erecto thallodem 

tumidum demum obtegente. Turner Island, in rupe porphyri- 

tico ; Agassiz. P. Glaucomae, Ach. Fr. et P. repandse, Fr. affinis. 
Distincta videtur crusta tenui, apotheciisque nigris infantia solum 
eonspicue pruinosis, margine proprio erecto persistente. 

Stereocaulon. 

1. tomentOsum Fr., fert. 

2. paschale Laur., fert. Adsunt quoque specimina S. coralloidi forsan re- 

ferenda. 

Cladonia. Ser. Glaucescentes. 

1. turgida HofFm. a. fert. 

/?. grypea, Tuckerm. mss. Podetiis majoribus fastigiato-ramosis 
glauco-viridibus, scyphis obscuris in ramos fastigiatos radiato-dentatos, 

r. subulatos abeuntibus. Major, pulchre glauco-viridis. Formia 

majoribus americanis C. uncialis /*. similis et analoga, reipsa vero 
C. turgidae omnino referenda. Thallo foliaceo destltuta simt speci- 
mina ; squamulse tamen (iis C. turgidae similes) hie illic apparent 
Ser. Fuscescentes. 

2. pyxidata Fr. a. fert. 

3. gracilis Fr. y. hybrida, Fr., fert 

4. degenerans Fl. a. fert. 
i. cornuta Fr. a. fert. 

6. squamosa Hoffm. a. fert. 

7. furcata, Fl. S. subulata Fl. infert 

8. rangiferina Hoffm. a. fert. 

/*. sylvatica FL, fert. 
y. alpestris FL, infert 
Ser. OchroleuccB. 

9. amaurocrcea FL, fert. 

10. uncialis Fr. p. adunca Ach., fert 

y. turgescens Sch., fert. 
Ser. Cocciferce. 

11. cornucopioides Fr., fert 

12. Floerkeana Fr., fert. 

13. deformis Hoffm., fert 



174 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

BlATORA. 

1. rufonigra Tuckerm., fert 

2. icmadophila Fr. 

3. vernalis Fr. 

Lecidea. 

1. parasema Fr. Specimina in Betula allquantum differe videntur. 

2. geographica, a. Schaer. 

Umbilxcaria. 

1. pustulata, (i. papulosa Tuck., fert. 

2. hirsuta Ach., fert. 

3. Dillenii Tuckerin., infert. 

4. MuMenhergii Ach., fert. 

Opegrapha. 

scripta Ach. Schaer. a. 

Endocarpon. 

1. miniatum, /*. complicattmi, Sch. Status pusillus, tenerltate etiam a Lichene 

Novae Anglic^ distans. 

2. Manitense Tuckerm. mss. Thallo cartllagineo-membranaceo tenui fra- 

gili laevi lobato ex ollvaceo-nigricante, lobls ambitus rotundatis 
incisis planis margine subplicatis crenatis, caeteris flexuosis irregular- 
ibus, subtus e fusco-nigrescentibus ; ostiolis prominulis nigris per- 

tusis. Proxima E. fluviatili, at colore, superficie nitidiuscula, 

lobatione fere Imbricariae, apotheciisque diversa. 

Pertusaria. 

pertusa Ach. a. 

COLLEMACEM, 

Collema saturninum, Ach., infert. 

Fungi were not collected, except a few of the more solid ones, which have 
not yet been determined. The softer species are very difficult to preserve 
during such a journey, when travelling constantly upon water in birch-bark 
canoes. 

To this first enumeration of the species of plants occurring about 
Lake Superior, and which belong to the subalpine region as such, we 
subjoin a list of species, which cannot strictly be referred to this one, 
though they occur in it. They are few in number and still fewer 
of them belong to the Cryptogamous plants. 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 



175 



n. Plants of the lake and shores, which have or have not their analogous 
representatives in Europe.* 



Lake Superior. 

Ranunculus aquatilis L. 
" reptans L. 

Cardamine hirsuta L. 
Barbarea vulgaris R. Br. 

Nuphar lutea Smith. Var. Kalmiana. 

Cakile americana Nutt. 
Callitriche linearis Pursh. 

" verna L. 
Lathyrus maritimus Bigel. 

" palustris L. 

Oenothera biennis L. 

Myriophyllum spicatum L. 
Sium lineare Mx. 
Bidens cernua L. 
Lysimachia stricta Ait. 

" ciliata L. 

Naumburgia thyrsiflora L. 

Veronica americana Mx. 

Lycopus virginicus L. 
" sinuatus Ell. 
Polygonum amphibium L. 

Myrica Gale L. 
Salix Candida Willd. 

" lucida Miihl. 

" discolor Miihl. 

" angustata Pursh. 

*' pedicillaris Pursh. 

" pumilis Marsh. 



Europe. 

Ranunculus aquatilis L. Everywhere. 
" reptans L. Sand of the 

lake shores. 
Cardamina hirsuta L. Moist places. 
Barbarea vulgaris R. Br. Along 

ditches. 
Nuphar pumila Sp. Black forest. 

Meadows and margin of lakes. 
Cakile maritima L. Baltic Sea. 
Callitriche autumnalis L. 

" verna L. In brooks. 

Lathyrus maritimus B. Marine plant. 
" palustris L. Marshes of the 
lakes. 
Oenothera biennis L. Lake of Neu- 
chatel. Introduced into Europe. 
Myrioph. spicatum L. Quiet waters. 
Sium angustifolium L. In brooks. 
Bidens cernua L. Ditches. 
Lysimachia vulgaris L. Marshes. 

" ciliata L. Marshes. 

Naumburgia thyrsiflora L. Near St. 

Blaise, Lake of Neuchatel. 
Veronica Beccabunga L. Brooks and 

lakes. 
Lycopus europseus L. Margins of 

waters. 
Polygonum amphibium L. Margins 
of quiet waters in diverse regions. 
Myrica Gale L. Shores of the Baltic. 
In Europe the same species of wil- 
lows are found at the margin of 
waters in diverse latitudes, but 
most of them differ from the Amer- 
ican species. The extensive dis- 
tribution of these trees along the 
shores of lakes and rivers at various 



* The number of aquatic plants found along the shores of Lake Superior, is so small, 
that I have put them all together in this list, whether they have, or not, their analo- 
gies in Europe. 



176 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Lake Superior. 



Populus balsamifera Mx. 
" tremuloides Mx. 
Sparganium natans L. 
Potamogeton natans L. 

" lucens L. 

" prselongus Wulf. 

" heterophyllus Schreb. 

t' pectinatus L. 

" pauciflorus Pursh. 

Triglochin elatum Nutt. ' 

Alisma Plantago L. 
Sagittaria variabilis Engl. 
Echinodorus subulatus Engl. 

Udora Canadensis Nutt. 

Vallisnerla spiralzis L. 

Iris versicolor L. 

Juncus effiisus L. 
" acuminatus Mx. 
" paradoxus E. Meyer. 
" nodosus L. 
" balticus Willd. 

Eleocharis obtnsa Schultz. 
" palustris R. Br. 
" tenuis Schult. 
" acicularis R. Br. 

Scirpus lacustris L. 

Carex stipata Miihl. 
*' scoparia Schk. 
" festucacea Schk. 
" vulgai'is Fries. 
" stellulata Good. 



Europe. 

latitudes, shows their closer con- 
nection with the nature of the 
ground than with the temperature 
of the country where they grow. 
Populus nigra L. > 
" tremula L. _> 
Sparganium natans L. 
Potamogeton natans L. 
" lucens. L 

" perfoliatus L. 



Jura. 

1 Quiet 
waters, 
I lakes 
j and riv- 
ers of 
J Europe. 



Triglochin palustre L. This species 

occurs also in N. America. 
Alisma Plantago L. ") ^^ 

Sagittaria sagittifolia L. y 
Echinodorus is an aquatic type peculiar 

to the American flora. 
Udora occidentallis Pursh. Northern 

Germany. 
Vallisneria spiralis L. Lombardy and 

Tessino. 
Iris pseudc-acorus L. Margins of 

waters. Everywhere. 
Juncus effusus L. 
" acutiflorus Ehrh. 



" balticus Willd. Northern Sea 
and Baltic. 

Eleocharis palustris R. Br. Marshes. 

" acicularis R. Br. Margin 

of lakes and marshes. 

Scirpus lacustris L. Common in all 
lakes of Switzerland. 

Many of these species are the same in 
the two continents ; but there 
are at the margin of waters of 
the whole middle and northern 
Europe, many more Cariees re- 



VEGETATION OP THE NORTHERN SHORES. 



177 



Lake Superior. 
Carex crinita Lam. 

tentaculata Muhl. 
hystricina Willd. 
Ocderi Ehrh. 
intumescens Rudge. 
retorsa ScJiwr. 
NItella flexilis Agardh. 

Fontinalis antipyretica. 



Europe. 

sembling those of North America, 
which are however not identical. 



Nitella flexilis Agardh. Lake of Gen- 
eva. 

Fontinalis antipyretica. In the brooks 
of the Jura. 



It seems at the first glance to be a contradiction to unite in a separate table 
the aquatic plants of the lakes, leaving as characteristic of the subalpine region 
the aquatic plants of the peat-bogs. That is, however, not the case, for the 
peat-bogs and the plants which form them, (the peat-bogs with Sphagna at 
least,) never descend below the Pine region, which they follow in its whole ex- 
tent, whilst lake and marine plants follow the shores in various latitudes. The 
former being of course under the direct influence of the temperature, the latter, 
on the contrary, being more dependent upon the moisture of the soil. 

in. American plants of Lake Superior, which have no analogous representa- 
tives in Central Europe.* 



Sarracenia purpurea L. 
Hudsonia tomentosa Nutt. 
Rubus Nutkanus Mof. 

Potentllla frutlcosa L. 



Cornus canadensis L. 



Truly American types. 

There are no Rubus of the type of 
odoratus and nutkanus in Europe. 

Cultivated In the gardens of Europe, 
where it succeeds very well in 
temperate plains and in the moun- 
tains. 

A charming little plant of which we find 
no other analogue in Central Eu- 
rope than a few Umbelliferae, for 
their general form, the Buple vrums 
for instance, which grow in the 
Sub Alps. But Cornus suecica L. 
is its strict analogue in Northern 
Europe. 



* Besides the genera which have no representatives at all in Central Europe, there 
are several introduced in this list which have only remote analogues, or indeed, real 
representatives ; but in such countries of the Old World which are far distant from 
the mountain chains, the vegetation of which has been compared here with that of 
Lake Superior. 



1T8 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Diervilla trlfida Moench. 
Mitchella repens L. 
Coreopsis lanceolata L. 

Mulgedium leucophaeum D. C. 

Nabalus racemosus Hook. 
Lobelia Kalmii L. 



Dianthera americana L. 
Mimulus ringens L. 
Castilleja coccinea Spr. 



septentrionalis Lindl. 



Monarda fistulosa L. 
Calystegia spithamsea Pursh. 
Apocynum androsaemifolium L. 



Polygonum articulatum L. 

Shephardia canadensis Nuit. 
Comandra livida L. 

" umbellata Nutt. 
Clintonia borealis Raf. 
Sisyrincliium bermudianum L. 



Truly American types. 

This genus, one of the finest of the 
Compositae, is wanting in Europe. 

Comes near the Mulgedium alpinum of 
Lapland. 

Entirely wanting in Europe. 

The Lobelioe are not numerous in Eu- 
rope, being replaced there by the 
CampanulaB and Phyteumata, of 
which genera the first is scantily 
represented in America, and the 
second not all. 

Truly American types. , 

Bartsia alpina L. Found upon the 
highest peaks of the Jura, is the 
nearest relative to Castilleja cocci- 
nea in Central Europe. 

Castilleja pallida L., closely allied to 
C. septentrionalis, occurs on the 
N. E. confines of Russia. 



We cannot consider this plant as cor- 
responding to the Apocynum Ve- 
netum, which belongs to the sea- 
shores of the Adriatic. These 
two species diifer in form and 
habitat. 

Of this type of Polygonum there is no 
analogous form in Europe. 



1 



I- Truly American types. 



IV. The few plants of Lake Superior, indicated in the following list, have 
either a very wide range or are perhaps introduced. 



Corydalis aurea Willd. 
" glauca Pursh. 



Corresponds to Corydalis lutea L. 
Vauxmarcus. The Corydalis are 
cosmopoHtes of the middle region. 
Capsella Bursa — Pastoris D. C. (In- Eviery where in Europe, 
troduced ?) 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHEKN SHORES. 



179 



Astragalus canadensis L. (^Cosmop- 
olite.) 
Trifolium repens L. (Introduced ?) 
Potentilla anserina L. 
Mentha piperita L. (Introduced.) 

Galeopsis Tetrahit L. (Introduced.) 
Physalis viscosa L. 



Blitum capitatum L. 

Amaranthus albus L. (Introduced.) 

Polygonum dumetorum. L. 



Corresponds to Astragalus glycipbyllos 

L. Equally cosmopolite. 
Everywhere in Europe. 

Mentha piperita L. Everywhere in 
Europe, especially in the plains. 

Everywhere in Europe. 

Corresponds to Physalis Alkekengi Zr., 
cosmopolite like the Solaneae in 
general, and all plants which at- 
tach themselves to man. 

Blitum capitum L. In Wallis. 

The sands of Europe. 

Grows in Europe in diverse latitudes. 



From these various tables it is easy to see that the vegetation of the northern 
shores of Lake Superior is perfectly similar to the subalpine vegetation of 
Europe, at that zone which, in the Jura for instance, extends from 3,000 to 
3,500 feet, and which in the Alps extends from 3,500 to 5,000 feet. Now 
removing some plants of the lakes, and some few peculiar American types, 
the subalpine flora remains in its integrity, and wUl be found to form chiefly 
the vegetation about the northern shores of Lake Superior. 



SPECIAL COMPARISON. 

Distribution of the Trees and Shrubs of Switzerland from the Plains 
to the Summit of the Mountains, compared with those of North 

America. ' 

As it is easier to perceive the regular order of succession of the 
different growths which follow each other along the slope of a moun- 
tain, and to determine under such circumstances the precise limits of 
their distribution, than to ascertain the natural range of the corres- 
ponding vegetation northwards over extensive tracts of land, in level 
countries, I shall first introduce a general picture of the arbores- 
cent vegetation of the Swiss mountains, before I undertake to show 
that it agrees most minutely in its internal arrangement with that of 
the lake districts. 

The vines which cover the margins of the Lake of Neuchatel, 1338 
feet above the level of the sea, characterize, of course, the lower 



180 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

regions, wliich we call, for that reason, the region of vineyards. The 
trees which are cultivated there, the mulberry, peach, apricot, and 
even the fig in the warmest places, are all exotic. All fruits of the 
temperate zone, however, succeed there perfectly well, and among the 
wild trees and shrubs which characterize this zone, we find especially 
Rubus : Rubus corylifolius, Rubus fruticosus i., Rubus tomentosus 
W. ; some Roses : Rosa pimpinellifoha L., Rosa eglanteriai., Rosa 
alba L. ; the Pyrus communis L., the Crataegus torminalis L., Mes- 
pilus germanica L., and Mespilus eriocarpa DO. The most common 
ornamental shrubs which are cultivated there on level ground, are 
the Philadelphus coronarius and the Lilac, which we find as far as the 
lower valleys of the Jura. This zone is almost entirely cultivated, 
and has few indigenous trees. We meet now and then with forests 
of oak trees (Quercus Robur Z.,) and of chestnut trees (Castanea 
vesca).* 

Immediately above this horizon, at an elevation of some hundred 
feet higher, from 1600 to 1700 feet begins the zone of oaks, which 
ascends somewhat into the valleys. The two species of this genus, 
the Quercus Robur L., and the Quercus sessiliflora Sm., grow in 
the same places ; the latter ascends, however, a little higher, and 
occurs but very thinly, it is true, in the Val de Ruz, and in the 
Val de Travers. On the slopes of the Alps it ascends 1,500 feet 
higher, especially in sheltered valleys. The shrubs and trees which 
follow these are not numerous, (for the vegetation of the oak 
forests, like thaj of the pine trees, excludes other trees ;) they are 
the hedge-plants, which are found as far as the region of the pines, 
(Viburnum Opulus L. et Viburnum Lantana i.) ; the yew, (Taxus 
baccata i>.) ; the box-tree, (Buxus sempervirens i.) ; the hornbeam, 
(Carpinus betulus X.,) very rare ; the alder, (Alnus glutinosa 
Crcertn.^ At the margins of the brooks, some briars, the honeysuckle, 
(Lonicera Caprifolium,) cultivated ; the buckthorn, (Rhamnus ca- 
tharticus L.') ; the holly, (Rex Aquifolium). The fruit trees culti- 
vated with the greatest success in this zone, are the walnut, the 
apple, the pear, &c. 

* Along the margin of the lakes grow the Populus nigra and several species of willows, 
which are characteristic, but have no direct affinity with the localities in which they 
occur. The Clematis Vitalba, on the contrarj', attaches itself to the trees of the region 
of the Tines and oak trees, but never ascends higher. 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 181 

Between the region of the oak and that of the beech, we have at a 
height of 2,000 feet, as a transitory zone, a narrow tract characterized 
bj the wild cherry tree and the Pinus sylvestris, which is, however, 
particularly adorned by a large variety of shrubs. To this zone 
belongs in the first place the linden tree, (Tilia microphylla V., and 
Tilia platyphylla jScoj).') ; three maples, (Acer opulifolium L., Acer 
platanoides L., and Acer campestre L.) ; the Evonymus europseus L., 
Cei'asus Padus DC, Prunus spiuosai., Crataegus Ariai/.,Mespilus 
oxyacantha, Lonicera Periclyraenum i., Sambucus nigra L., Cornus 
mas L., Cornus sanguinea i., Yiscum album L., Ligustrum vulgare 
L., Daphne Cneorum L., Populus tremula i., with the introduced ^s- 
culus Hipocastanum, which succeeds in this zone better than anywhere 
else. This is the region of shrubs, properly speaking, with which is 
mingled the beech tree, whose zone, however, is more extended, and 
ascends in the Jura to 3,500 feet, and to 4,000 feet in the Alps. 

To the region of the beech tree, which extends over a thousand 
feet of vertical height, from 2,500 to 3,500 feet, belong the followino- 
shrubs: — Rhamnus Frangula L., Cytisus Laburnum L., Rubus saxa- 
tills L., Rubus caesius Z., Rubus idgeus L., Rosa eglanteria i. , Rosa 
villosa X., Rosa canina L., Rosa rubiginosa i., Crataegus Amelan- 
chier L., Lonicera Xylosteum L., Sambucus Ebulus L., Daphne 
Mezereum L., Daphne alpina L., Daphne laureola L., Ulmus 
campestris L., Corylus Avellana L. 

The region of the pines or Coniferse extends from 3,500 feet to 
4,500 feet in the Jura, and to 6,000 feet in the Alps. It is well 
characterized in its lower and middle parts, where we find Frax- 
inus excelsior L., Abies excelsa J^C, Abies pectinata i)(7., Juniperus 
communis L., and in the higher part the Pmus Cembra L.. Pinus 
Pumiho Clus, Larix europaea DC. In this zone live the Betula alba 
L., Betula pubescens Wir., and Betula nana L., and some bushes 
which never leave it, the Ericineae especially ; Vaccinium Myrtillus 
i/., Vaccinium uliginosumi., Vaccinium Oxycoccos X., Vaccinium 
Vitis-idgea L., Andromeda pohfolia L., Arbutus Uva-ursi L., Arbu- 
tus alpina X., Pyrola rotundifoha i., Pyrola mmor, X., Pyrola chlor- 
antha Sn., Pyrola secunda L., Pyrola umbellata L., Pyrola uniflora 
L., Linnaea boreaUs L., Lonicera alpigena L., Lonicera cgerulea 
L., Rosa rubrifolia Willd., Rosa alpina i., Rhamnus alpinus, L. 



182 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

and in the higher parts, CratiTSgus Chamgemespilus Z., Azalea pro- 
cumbens i., Empetrum nigrum Z., Acer pseudoplatanus L. 

Above all these we meet already in the Jura the Rhododendrons 
and the Salix herbacea, which belong ti-uly to the alpine flora char- 
acterized by all those handsome plants covered with a light cotton 
down, which we find along the margin of the glaciers in the Alps, 
and as high as the uppermost limit where all vegetation ceases some- 
what suddenly, at a level of about 8,000 feet above the level of the 
sea. 

Trees of the Lake Superior Region. 

We may place at about 40° northern latitude the zone of vegeta- 
tion, which in America corresponds to the upper limit of the cultiva- 
tion of the vine, as we observe it on the banks of the Swiss lakes. 
At about this latitude the family of the Magnoliacese dies out, though 
we may still meet the Magnolia glauca in the swamps, as far as the 
43° N. lat., and though the tulip tree still flourishes there. This is 
also the northern limit of the Anonace^e, Melastomacege, Cactaceae, 
Santalacese, and Liquidambar ; and though in Europe we have no 
representatives of these families, it is easy to perceive, on reflecting 
upon the examples just mentioned, that the limits of vegetation under 
consideration are natural, and correspond to each other, though 
characterized in the two continents by different plants. Again, the 
numerous species of wild vines which America produces, although 
they do not extend farther northwards than the cultivation of the 
vine in Europe, yet prosper on tliis continent in a colder climate. 

The State of Massachusetts, with its long arm stretched into the 
ocean eastwards, or rather the region extending westward under the 
same parallel through the State of New York, forms a natural limit 
between the vegetation of the warm temperate zone, and that of the 
cold temperate zone, whose forests G. B. Emerson, Esq., has so well 
described in his admirable Report upon the Trees and Shrubs of 
Massachusetts. With this book, we may become well acquainted 
with the arborescent vegetation of the zone which corresponds to the 
horizon of oaks and shrubs in the Jura ; so that I need not enumer- 
ate these characteristic species. Not only is this also the northern 
limit of the culture of fruit trees, but this zone is equally remarkable 
for the great variety of elegant shrubs which occur particularly 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 183 

on its northern borders, where we find so great a variety of 
species belonging to the genera, Celastrus, Crataegus, Ribes, 
Cornus, Hamamelis, Vaccinium, Kalmia, Rhodora, Azalea, Rho- 
dodendrum, Andromeda, Clethra, Viburnum, Cephalanthus, Prinos, 
Dirca, Celtis, &c. I shall only add, that in the latitude under 
which the St. Lawrence winds its course from the great Canadian 
lakes, and takes a more independent course north-eastwards, we 
perceive already great changes in the growth of trees. About Niag- 
ara, or rather somewhat farther north along the northern shores of 
Lake Ontario, and the hills which rise above Toronto, the following 
species begin to disappear : Sassafras officinale, (I have not seen this 
species north of Table Rock,) Juglans nigra and cinerea, Carya alba 
and amara, Castanea americana, Quercus alba and Castanea, Pla- 
tanus occidentalis, TiUa americana, (this species occurs, however, 
as far north as Sturgeon Bay, on Lake Huron,) Rubus odoratus. 
Though the Beech is extensively distributed among the forests of this 
zone, we cannot but be struck with their splendid growth further north, 
where the Elm, Red Oak, Hornbeam, Hop-hornbeam, several species 
of Birches, various Maples, Ashes, Wild Cherries, &c., &c., more 
or less mixed with Coniferse, form the most beautiful forests of the 
temperate zone, particularly remarkable for their diversified shades 
of green and dark foliage, and which almost uniformly cover the 
ground along the shores of the Great Lakes as far as Lake Superior, 
the Coniferse gradually coming in in a larger proportion to the suc- 
cessive exclusion of the trees with deciduous leaves. As soon as we 
reach Mackinaw we find the Beech has almost entirely disappeared, 
or become so dwarfish as no longer to be a handsome tree, while 
Ostrya, Carpinus, Betula populifoUa, Quercus rubra, and indeed all 
Cupuliferae are entirely gone, and the Canoe-Birch, the Black Ash, 
with Pinus balsamifera, alba, nigra, Larix americana, Pinus Strobus, 
Sorbus americana, and some Poplars on the lake shore, form the mass 
of forests, with a few low shrubs among them, such as Arctostaphylos 
Uva-ursi, Vaccinium, Chiogenes, &c. This zone, which corresponds 
to the horizon of Pines in the Jura, extends all along the northern 
shores of Lake Superior. North of Fort William are extensive 
forests of Pinus Banksiana, with Pinus resinosa and Strobus. We 
noticed no Cupuliferae beyond Batcheewauaung Bay, and we learnt 



184 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

that but a few dwarfish Red Oaks are seen in the Island of Michipi- 
cotin ; but the Elm is still handsome about Fort William, though it is 
very scarce in other parts of the northern shores. 

The shores of Nipigon Bay, the northernmost point we visited, are 
covered with Pine forests, with a few Ashes and Maples, and here and 
there a Sorbus americana among them. At this latitude, the 49°, 
we had therefore not yet reached the zone of the true alpine vegeta- 
tion, and remained for the whole extent of our journey within the 
limits of the sub-alpine flora. 

The highest point which we visited, the summit of a mountain upon 
St. Ignace Island, which we called Mount-Cambridge, afforded the 
following harvest for our herbarium : — Abies balsamea, Abies alba, 
Betula papyracea, Alnus viridis, Sorbus americana, Amelanchier 
canadensis, Acer montanum, Diervillea trifida, Sambucus pubens, 
Rhus Toxicodendrum, Vaccinium uliginosum, Corylus rostrata, Lin- 
ngea borealis, Cornus canadensis. Spiraea opulifolia, Salix, Cory- 
dalis glauca, Epilobium angustifolium. Polygonum ciliare, Melam- 
pyrum, Clintonia borealis, Stereocaulon paschale-, Gyrophora hirsuta, 
Cladonia pyxidata, and rangiferina, Parmelia tiUacea and Sphagnum 
acutifolium. 

From this list it is obvious, that even a thousand feet of height 
will introduce very slight differences in the vegetation of these re- 
gions. For, though Mount Cambridge is about a thousand feet above 
the level of the lake, its whole slope is covered with the same vege- 
tation which occurs at the very level of the lake. 

This fact would seem in flat contradiction with the general laws of 
the geographical distribution of plants, to which we have alluded above, 
but for the presence of the lake itself and its peculiar character. 

So large a sheet of so deep water as Lake Superior, preserving all 
the year round a very equable and low temperature even on its 
shores, which are generally very precipitous, must of course influence 
greatly the temperature of the main land in its immediate vicinity, at 
considerable heights above its surface. 

There is, therefore, nothing very surprising in our finding so uniform 
a vegetation at rather considerable heights above the surface of the 
lake and on its immediate shores. 

This fact is to be attributed to the equalizing local influence of the 



VEGETATION OP THE NORTHERN SHORES. 185 

lake, and does not form an exception to the law of distribution, and 
change of the character of vegetation in the interior of continents, upon 
the slopes of high mountains ; for we have, even a few degrees farther 
south, in the same continent, a striking example of the fixity of these 
laws, in the White Mountains, which are sufficiently distant from the 
sea-shore, and not surrounded by any large sheet of fresh water, so 
that the zones of vegetation are very well marked on their slopes, 
and can be traced in gradual succession beyond the range of the 
Mountains proper to the level, where the vegetation has the char- 
acter which distinguishes it, in this latitude, near the level of the sea. 

In the vicinity of the White Mountains, the changes of vegetation 
are rather conspicuous, owing to their gradual elevation above the 
surrounding flat country, and also to the more sudden rise of several 
of their peaks. We no sooner begin to ascend the head waters of 
the Connecticut valley towards Littleton, than the forest vegetation 
begins to assume a different character from what it has lower down in 
the main valley nearer the sea. Juglans cinerea and Carya porcina 
disappear in that* village. The oaks also are fewer and smaller. 
The mountain maple, which is not found below, here makes its 
appearance. The following trees may be seen between Windsor and 
Littleton : — Abies Canadensis, Pinus strobus. Thuya occidentahs, 
Larix Americana, Platanus occidentalis, Fagus ferruginea, Compto- 
nia asplenifolia, Betula populifoha, B. lenta, B. excclsa, B. papy- 
racea, Quercus alba, Q. rubra, Q. bicolor, Ulmus Americana, Car- 
pinus Americana, Ostrya Virginica, Fraxinus alba, Populus tremu- 
loides, Tilia Americana, Acer saccharinum, A. montanum, A. Penn- 
sylvanicum. The chestnut has already disappeared at Windsor, 
where the height above the level of the sea is three hundred feet. 

From Littleton, eight hundred and thirty feet above the sea, to 
Fabyan's, which is fifteen hundred feet,* we notice Abies alba, 
A. balsamifera, A. Canadensis, Pinus strobus, Larix Americana, 
TiHa Americana, Fraxinus alba, Acer saccharinum, A. monta- 
num, A. Pennsylvanicum, Ulmus Americana, Sorbus Americana, 
Betula excelsa, B. papyracea, B. populifolia, Alnus incana, Comp- 

* This and the following measures were ascertained barometrically by Professor 

A. Guyot. 

13 



186 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

tonia asplenifoHa, &c. The Cupuliferse have disappeared; Pinus 
rigida, also, is no longer observed, and thus vegetation continues 
from Fabjan's to a level of two thousand and eighty feet, where 
the pine vegetation forms the larger proportion of the features of the 
forest. 

This height of two thousand and eighty feet is a very natural 
level in the chain of the White Mountains, and especially on the 
slope of Mount Washington. It indicates the horizon where the 
slope begins to be much steeper, and where the variety of trees 
combined in the forests is greatly reduced ; for above this level to 
the height of four thousand three hundred and fifty feet we may say 
that the vegetation consists entirely of Abies alba and balsamea and 
Betula excelsa and papyracea, which grow gradually more and more 
stunted, till at the height of four thousand three hundred and fifty 
feet, those species even, which form tall, splendid trees one or two 
thousand feet lower, appear here as mere shrubs, low bushes, with 
crooked branches so interwoven as almost entirely to hedge up the 
way, excepting in places where a bridle-path has been cut through. 

Above this level the mountain is naked, and many fine plants make 
their appearance which remind us of the Flora of Greenland, and 
many of which grow on the northern shores of Lake Superior, such 
as Arenaria Groenlandica, Vaccinium caespitosum, uliginosum, &c. 

The summit of the mountain, at the height of six thousand two 
hundred and eighty feet, produces several plants which have no 
representatives south of Labrador. Such are Andromeda hypnoides, 
Saxifraga rivularis, Rhododendron lapponicum, Diapensia lapponica. 

Before leaving this subject I ought to make an additional remark 
about the identity of so many plants which are common to both 
continents. It is a general fact, that the farther north we proceed, 
the greater is the primitive uniformity of the plants, as well as the 
animals, in both hemispheres ; so much so, that the arctic flora and the 
arctic fauna are identical, not only in their general character, but also 
in almost all the species which characterize that region as a natural 
botanical and zoological province. But there are a great many 
plants and animals occurring in the temperate zone, which are equally 
identical in Europe and America, and which, nevertheless, do not 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 187 

belong originallj to both bemispberes,* but were introduced into 
America since tbe settlement of Europeans in this part of the world, 
many of which, though foreigners, have spread so extensively, as 
to be generally considered as natives of this country. But if we 
carefully examine their distribution, we soon perceive that they follow 
everywhere the tracks of civilization, and occur nowhere except in 
those districts and in those soils where the hands of white men have 
been at work. In such localities, however, they have almost com- 
pletely replaced the native weeds, which have disappeared before 
them as completely as the Indian tribes have disappeared before the 
pressing invasion of the more civilized nations. These plants are 
chiefly such as occur in Europe by the road-sides, or near the habita- 
tion of man, and which to a certain degree may be considered as sat- 
ellites of the white race. Their occurrence is particularly striking 
along the new lines of railroads, Avhere they settle almost as soon as 
the tracks are marked out, and increase in a few years so* rapidly 
within the enclosure of the roads, as to suppress the primitive vegeta- 
tion almost completely, with the exception of a few hardy natives 
which resist the new invaders. Several of these plants occur natur- 
ally, in America, in more northern latitudes. Nevertheless, I have 
no doubt that in most cases they were introduced into the more 
temperate and cultivated latitudes from Europe, rather than from 
their northern residence in America. 

The following list of these plants was chiefly made from an 
examination of the railroad tracks between Boston and Salem, in 
company with that liberal cultivator of botany, Hon. John A. LoweU, 
and also from materials collected during an excursion made with 



* I do not wish by this remark to be understood as intending to deny the identity of any 
native plant in the temperate zone of Europe and America. I know that many species 
•which occur very far north, and are there truly identical in both continents, are also 
found among the plants of the temperate zone on the two sides of the Atlantic ; but 
there still remains a large number, the identity of which ought to be ascertained by 
direct comparison of authentic specimens from the two continents, before it can be 
finally admitted that there is no specific difference between them. As such, I may 
mention Hepatica triloba, Geranium Robertianum, Oxalis Acetosella, Spiraea Aruncus, 
Circa3a lutetiana, Calystegia sepium, Agrimonia Eupatoria, Majanthemum bifolium, 
and many aquatic plants. The identity of these with European species seems to 
me the more questionable, as the freshwater animals, the fishes, mollusks and insects 
differ specifically throughout. 



188 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



the same gentleman to Niagara Falls and the White Mountains. 
The European weeds which are limited to cultivated ground, as 
Lychnis Githago, Centaurea cyaneus, are entirely omitted in this 
list, as well as plants escaped from gardens, which are found only 
occasionally, in an apparently wild condition, in the United States, 
as Abutilon Avicennse, Althaea officinalis, &c. 



Ranunculaceoe. 
Kanunculus acris. 

" bulbosus. 

" sceleratus. 

Berberidece. 
Berberis vulgaris. 

Papaveracece. 
Chelidonium majus. 

Fumariacece. 
Fumajia officinalis. 

Cruciferos. 
Nasturtium officinale. 
Lepidium ruderale. Often side by 

side with Lepid. virgimanum. 
Barbarea vulgaris. 
Sisymbrium officinale. 

" thalianum. 

Draba verna. 
Sinapis nigra. 

" arvensis. 
Capsella Bursa-Pastoris. 
Raphanus Raphanistrum. 

Hypericinece. 
Hypericum perfoliatum. 

Caryophyllaceoi. 
Saponaria officinalis. 
Silene inflata. 
Arenaria serpyllifolia. 
Stellaria media. 



Cerastium vulgatum. 
Spergula arvensis. 
Sclerantlius annuus.'^ 

Portulacacece. 
Portulaca oleracea. 

3[alvacece. 
Malva rotundifolia. 

Geraniece. 
Erodium cicutarium. 

Leguminosce. 
Trifolium pratense. 
" arvense. 
" repens. 

" procumbens. 

Medicago lupulina. 
Vicia sativa. 
" cracca. 
Melilotus officinalis. 

Crassulacece. 
Sedum Telepliium. 

UmbellifercB. 
Daucus Carota. 
Pastinaca sativa. 
Conium maculatum. 

Ruhiacece. 
Galium Aparine. 
" verum. 



VEGETATION OF THE NORTHERN SHORES. 



189 



Valerianece. 
Fedia olitoria. 

Compositce. 
Tussilago Farfara. 
Inula Helenium. 
Achillsea millefolium. 
Xanthium strumarium. 
Leucanthemum vulgare. 
Tanacetum vulgare. 
Lappa major. 
Cichorium Intybus. 
Leontodon autumnale. 
Maruta cotula. 
Anthemis arvensis. 
Taraxacum Dens Leonis. 
Senecio vulgaris. 
Sonclius oleraceus. 
" arvensis. 

Plantaginece. 
Plantago major. 
" lauceolata. 

Primulacece. 
Anagallis arvensis. 

ScrophularinecR. 
Linaria vulgaris. 
Verbascum Thapsus. 
Veronica officinalis. 

" serpyllifolia. 

" arvensis. 

" agrestis. 

LabiatOR. 
Lycopus Europceus. 
Nepeta Cataria. 
Leonurus cardiaca. 
Prunella vulgaris. 
Origanum vulgare. 
Clinopodium vulgare. 
Lamium amplexicaule. 
Galeopsis Tetraliit. 
" Ladanum. 



Marrubium vulgare. 
Ballota nigra. 

BorraginecB. 
Echium vulgare. 
Lycopsis arvensis. 
Symphytum officinale. 
Lithospermum officinale. 

" arvense. 

Echinospermum Lappula. 
Cynoglossum officinale. 

ConvolvulaceoR. 
Convolvulus arvensis. 

Solanece. 
Solanum Dulcamara. 

" nigrum. 

Datura Stramonium. 
Hyoscyamus niger. 

Oleacece. 
Ligustrum vulgare. 

Chenopodiacea:. 
Chenopodium album. 
Agatliopliytum Bonus-Henricus. 

PolygoneoB. 
Polygonum Hydropiper. 
" aviculare. 

" Convolvulus. 

" Persicaria. 

Rumex Acetosella. 
" obtusifolius. 
" crispus. 

Urticacece. 
Urtica urens. 
" dioica. 

EupJiorhiacece. 
Euphorbia helioscopia. 
" platyphylla. 

" Peplus. 



190 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Euphorbia Esula. 

Salicinece. 
Salix purpurea. 
" viminalis. 
« alba. 
" fragilis. 

LiliacecR. 
Allium vineale. 

GraminecR. 
Alopecurus pratensis. 
Phleum pratense. 
Agrostis canina. 

" vulgaris. 

« alba. 



Cynodon Dactylon. 
Dactylis glomerata. 
Poa pratensis. 

" annua. 
Festuca duriuscula. 
" elatior. 
" pratensis. 
Bromus secalinus. 
Triticum repens. 

" caninum. 
Lolium perenne. 
Arrhenatherum elatius. 
Holcus lanatus. 
Anthoxanthum odoratum. 
Panicum Crus-galli. 
Setaria viridis. 



It is still a question whether all these plants originate from Europe, as many 
of them occur there in the same circumstances as in this continent, under the 
immediate influence of agricultural improvements, and might have followed the 
Caucasian race of men from farther east, in his migrations over the temperate 
zone of Europe. Various other remarks resjjecting the vegetation of this con- 
tinent may be found above, in the course of the Narrative, pp. 10, 13, 19, 89. 
Many interesting remarks upon the foreign vegetation of this continent may 
also be gathered in Kalm's Travels in North America. Quite a number of 
European insects have also been introduced into this country with those plants, 
among which I may mention some showy butterflies, as Vanessa atalanta, Car- 
dui and Antiopa, which are very erroneously considered by some entomologists 
as native Americans. 



III. 

CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS FROM EMBRYONIC 
AND PALEOZOIC DATA. 



For several years I have been in the habit of illustrating, in my 
public lectures and elsewhere, principles which have not yet been 
introduced in our science, and to which I feel it my duty to call 
attention in a more formal manner on this occasion, as during our 
excursion we had several opportunities to discuss them at length. 
These remarks will form an appropriate introduction to the lists of 
the animals found about Lake Superior, which are given below. 

The principle which has regulated our classifications for the last 
half century, is that which Cuvier worked out by his anatomical 
investigations ; I mean the arrangement of the whole animal kingdom 
according to the natural affinities of animals as ascertained by the 
investigation of their internal structure. This fruitful principle, 
applied in various ways, has produced a series of classifications, 
agreeing or differing more or less in their outlines, but all resting 
upon the idea, that a certain amount of anatomical characters may 
be easily ascertained, expressing the main relations which exist natu- 
rally among animals, and affording a natural basis for classification. 
Structure, therefore, internal as well as external, is, according to the 
principles of Cuvier, the foundation of all natural classifications ; and 
undoubtedly his researches and those of his followers have done more, 
in the way of improving our natural methods, than all the efforts of 
former naturalists put together ; and this principle will doubtless 
regulate, in the main, our farther efforts. 

Nevertheless, so much is left in this method to the arbitrary deci- 
sion of the observer, that it would be in the highest degree desirable 



192 , LAKE SUPERIOR. 

to have some principle bj which to regulate the internal details of 
the edifice. 

We may indeed form natural divisions simply from structural evi- 
dence, bring together all fishes as they agree in the most important 
details of their structure, and combine all reptiles into one class, not- 
withstanding the extreme differences in their external form. We may 
also recognize the true aflSnity of whales, and bring them together 
with other Mammalia, notwithstanding their aquatic habits and their 
fish-like * form ; we may even subdivide those classes into inferior 
groups upon structural evidence, and thus introduce orders, like the 
Quadrumana, Carnivora, Rodentia, Ruminantia, &c., &c., among 
Mammalia. But we are at once at a loss how to determine the relative 
value of those groups, and to find a scale for the natural arrange- 
ment of further subdivisions. After having, for example, circum- 
scribed the Carnivorous Mammalia into one natural family, how are 
we to group the minor divisions like that of the swimming Carnivora, 
the Plantigrada and the Digitigrada ; or, after circumscribing the 
reptiles into natural groups like those of Chelonians, Saurians, 
Ophidians and Batrachians, how shall we, for instance, arrange the 
various types of Batrachians ? To those who have been familiar 
with our proceedings in all these attempts, it must be evident that 
the grouping of our subdivisions has been almost arbitrary and en- 
tirely left to our decision without a regular guide. We have, it is 
true, subdivided the Batrachians into the more fish-like forms which 
preserve their gills and tails, or at least their tails ; and into another 
group, containing those wliich undergo a complete metamorphosis ; but 
it has not yet occurred to naturalists to take this metamorphosis as the 
regulating principle of classification, to arrange genera according to 
their agreement with certain degrees of development, in the natural 
order of changes Avhich the higher of these animals undergo. Now 
it is my firm belief, that such a new principle can be introduced into 
our science ; that methodical arrangement may be carried into the most 
minute details, without leaving any room for arbitrary decision. Pro- 
teus, Menobranchus, Amphiuma, Triton, Salamandra will hereafter 
have a natural place in our classification, which will be commanded 
by embryology, and no longer be left to a vague feeling that aquatic 
animals are lower than amphibious and terrestrial ones, and that the 



CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS. 193 

retaining of the gills indicates a lower position than their disap- 
pearance. * 

Of course, in the outset, we do not find sufficient data to trace this 
arrangement throughout the animal kingdom, and to make the prin- 
ciple which I have just mentioned the ruling law of nice classical 
arrangement. But until such sufficient knowledge is acquired, let me 
show that my principle does in fact apply to all classes of the animal 
kingdom, and will at once contribute to improve all their subdivisions. 
Among Mammalia, for example, we shall continue to give the aquatic 
carnivorous animals a lower position among Garni vera, but no onger 
simply because they are aquatic, but because they are webfooted, as 
the webfoot is the earlier form of the limbs in all Mammalia whose 
embryonic development has been traced. We shall be led, for similar 
reasons, to deny the bats the high position which has been assigned 
to them, and to combine them closer with the Insectivora. We shall 
separate the manatees from their present relations and combine them 
with tapirs, elephants, &c., as they are rather webfooted Pachy- 
derms, than true Cetaceans.f 

* These views were fully illustrated in a series of twelve lectures upon Comparativ e 
Enibryologij , delivered before the Lowell Institute during the last winter, and reported 
for the Daily Evening Traveller, and afterwards published as a separate pamphlet. 

t These aphorisms will be justified by a more elaborate illustration of the peculiar 
changes which the limbs of Mammalia undergo during their embryonic growth, as far 
as I have been able to trace them, in various animals. It may suffice, for the present, 
for me to say here, that in all young embryos of Mammalia which I have recently had 
an opportunity to examine, I have found the extremities arising as oblong tubercles, 
flattened at their extremities, spreading more and more into the form of hemispherical 
paddles, in which the changes in the cellular growth gradually introduce differences 
upon the points where the fingers are to be developed. But for a longer time they re- 
main combined in a common outline, and the microscopic structure of the tissues alone 
indicates the points of growth ; and even after the fingers have been fully sketched out, 
they remain for a certain time united by a common web, which is successively i-educed 
as the fingers grow longer and thicker. 

It is very remarkable how uniform, and indeed how identical inform and structure the 
anterior and posterior extremities are in the beginning, whatever may be the difference 
at a later period of growth. Thus, for instance, there is not the slightcit difference be- 
tween the anterior and posterior extremities of the bat, in the early stages of develop- 
ment. The wing is then a very short limb, terminated by a flat, webbed paddle, of a 
semicircular form, identical in development, size and form with the hinder extremity, 
and differing in no respect from the appearance of the hand and foot in young human 
embryos, or in embryos of cats, dogs, squirrels, hares, rabbits and pigs, and bearing 



194 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Among birds we shall also avail ourselves of the discovery I made 
last year, that embryos of birds have web-feet and web-wings, and no 
longer consider Palmipedes as forming a natural group by themselves, 
but allow the possibility of having several natural groups of birds, 
beginning each with web-footed forms. Every one who is conversant 
with the natural history of birds must have been struck with the great 
diversity of features in birds united in our systems under the head 
of Palmipedes. Taking all birds together, we hardly notice among 
them greater differences than those which exist between the various 
families of Palmipedes, which are, confessedly, brought together upon 
no other character than the webbed form of their feet ; though among 
them we have birds of prey, such as the gulls, and others, which 
seem to stand by themselves unconnected and without any analogy 
with any other family, such as the swans, geese, and ducks ; and 
again, the pelicans and the genera allied to them, and also the divers. 
It can hardly be understood, why birds so widely different should be 
brought together; and indeed, their reunion would long ago have 
been given up, had it not been for the difficulty of finding characters 
to separate them, and for the strong impression, that the similarity 
of the structure of their feet should overrule the other characters. 

But now, since it is known that birds of the most heterogeneous 
character in the structure of their legs, in their adult form, have, 
when very young, identical legs, whether they belong to the type 
of hawks, or to that of crows, or to that of sparrows, or to that of swal- 
lows, or to that of pigeons, or to that of hens, or to that of waders, 
or to that of true Palmipedes, — when we know all these types to have 
an identical development of their legs, and, I may add also, of their 
wings, — for the young wing is equally a small, webbed fin, — there 
can be no longer any doubt left upon the impropriety of combining 
any two families of adult birds solely on the ground of their legs 
having webbed feet. 

It is a fact, too well known in zoology, that different famihes will 

the same relation to the extremities of birds, in which also legs and wings are de- 
veloped according to the same pattern. 

These facts have been partly described in my Lectures on Comparative Embryology, 
and more extensively illustrated in a paper laid before the American Association for the 
advancement of Science, in Cambridge, August, 1849. See also Narrative, p. 35. 



CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS. 195 

repeat, in the same class, the characteristic changes which are pecu- 
liar to the whole family, to require any further argument to show that 
Palmipedes are not, necessarily, a natural division ; and though we 
may fail for the present in rearranging the families of this class into 
natural orders, I trust after these remarks, more importance will yet 
be attached, and more attention paid in future, to the fact that Pal- 
mipedes, as they are now characterized, have very different types of 
wings and bills. I have, for my own part, been strongly impressed 
with the resemblance which exists between gulls and frigate birds, 
and the birds of prey, of the hawk and vulture families, in which the 
toes aYe by no means so completely distinct as they are among other 
birds. And, far from considering birds of prey as the highest family 
among birds, I would only consider them as highest in the series 
which includes simultaneously Procellaridae and Laridse. Whether 
the family of pelicans belongs to this group or not, I am not prepared 
to say ; but, at all events, the fact of their preserving their four toes 
in one continuous web shows them to rank lowest among; birds. 

Again, among reptiles there will no longer be a foundation for 
any arrangement resting merely upon impressions ; thus the terres- 
trial turtles will stand higher than the freshwater, and these again 
higher than the marine ; and among Batrachians, which are best 
known in their embryology, we can already arrange all the genera 
in natural series, taking the metamorphosis of the higher as a 
scale, and placing all full-grown forms in successive order, accord- 
ing to their greater or less resemblance to these transient states. 
Even the relative position of toads and frogs may be settled with 
as much internal evidence as any other question of rank in wider 
limits, merely upon the difference of their feet. 

In my researches upon fossil fishes I have on several occa- 
sions alluded to the resemblance which we notice between the 
early stages of growth in fishes, and the lower forms of their famihes 
in the full-grown state, and also to a similar resemblance between the 
embryonic forms and the earliest representatives of that class in the 
oldest geological epochs ; an analogy which is so close, that it involves 
another most important principle, viz., that the order of succession in 
time, of the geological types, agrees with the gradual changes which 
the animals of our day undergo during their metamorphosis, thus 



196 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

giving us another guide to the manifold relations which exist among 
animals, allowing us to avail ourselves, for the purpose of classification, 
of the facts derived from the development of the whole animal king- 
dom in geological epochs, as well as the development of individual 
species in our epoch. But to this most fruitful principle I shall have 
hereafter an opportunity of again calling attention. 

At present there is some doubt among zoologists, as to the respect- 
ive position of the classes of worms, insects and Crustacea, some 
placing the Crustacea, and others the insects uppermost. Embryonic 
data may aiford the means of settling this question ; we need only 
remember the extensive external changes which insects undergo from 
their earliest age, and the many stages of structure through wliich 
they pass, whilst Crustacea are less polymorphous during the different 
periods of their life, and never obtain an aerial respiration, but 
breathe through hfe with gills, which many larvae of insects cast before 
they have accomplished their metamorphoses, to be satisfied that the 
affinity between Crustacea and worms is greater than between worms 
and insects, especially if we consider the extraordinary forms of some 
parasitic types of the former. As soon as the higher rank of insects 
among Articulata is acknowledged, many important relations, which 
remain otherwise concealed, are at once brought out. The whole 
type of insects in its perfect condition, contains only aerial animals, 
while the Crustacea and worms are chiefly aquatic. And if we com- 
pare these three classes in a general way, we cannot deny the cor- 
rectness of the comparison as made by Oken, that worms corres- 
pond to the larval state of insects, Crustacea to their pupa state, 
and that insects pass through metamorphoses corresponding to 
the other classes of Articulata. The little we know about the 
embryology of worms will already satisfy us that the earlier 
stages of the higher of these animals agree most remarkably in 
character with such of them as, from other reasons, we have been 
in the habit of considering as the lowest, thus affording another 
prospect of regulating finally the arrangement of those curious 
animals entirely upon embryonic data. 

If there is any internal evidence that the whole animal kingdom is 
constructed upon a definite plan, we may find it in the remarkable 



CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS. 197 

agreement of our conclusions, wliether derived from anatomical evi- 
dence, from embryology or from palaeontology. Nothing, indeed, 
can be more gratifying than to trace the close agreement of the 
general results derived from the study of the structure of animals, 
with the results derived from the investigation of their embryonic 
changes, or from their succession in geological times. Let anatomy 
be the foundation of a classification, and in the main, the frame thus 
devised will agree with the arrangement introduced from embryo- 
logical data. And, again, this series will express the chief features 
of the order of succession in which animals were gradually intro- 
duced upon our globe. Some examples will show more fully that 
this is really the case. Resting more upon the characters derived 
from the nervous system, Avhich in the crabs is concentrated into a 
few masses, zoologists have generally considered these animals as 
higher than the lobsters, in which the nervous ganglia remain more 
isolated. Now as far as we know, the embryos of brachyuran Crus- 
tacea, that is, of crabs, are all macrural in their shape, that is to 
say, they resemble at an early age the lobsters more than their own 
parents ; and again, lobster-like Crustacea prevailed in the middle 
ages of geological times during the triassic and oolitic periods, that 
is, ages before crabs were created, as we find no fossils of that family 
before the tertiary period. 

Of the class of insects I have for the present little to say, the di- 
versity of their metamorphoses having not yet allowed an insight into 
their bearing. I will only mention that the predaceous character of 
the larvse of most of the sucking insects, which are provided with 
powerful jaws in their early stages of growth, seems to indicate that 
the chewing insects rank lower than the sucking tribes. Investiga- 
tions which I am tracing at present, will, I hope, throw some light 
upon this most important question.* 

* Since the above remarks were written, I have devoted most of my time to the in 
vestigation of these metamorphoses in insects ; and to my great satisfaction (but, I 
may say, as I anticipated,) I find that the metamorphoses of the higher insects throw 
such light upon the real relations of the different orders of that class, as to settle final- 
ly the question of their gradation. It has now become with me a matter of fact, that 
Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Neuroptera and Hymenoptera, rank below Hemiptera, Diptera 
and Lepidoptera. A careful investigation of the changes of Lepidoptera has shown to 
me that, prior to assuming its pupa form, the young butterfly assumes, under the last 



198 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

In the department of Mollusca, if the above principles are correct, 
embryology is likely to introduce modifications in our systematic 
methods, which will entirely overthrow the views entertained at pres- 
ent respecting their systematical arrangement ; not that we should 
ever be led to consider Acephala as higher than the Gasteropoda, or 
these as higher than the Cephalopoda ; but within these classes, taken 
by themselves, I look for considerable changes, which, when once 
introduced, might explain why there is apparently so little agree- 
ment between the geological succession of their types and their 
systematic arrangement, especially among Gasteropoda. Now it is 
precisely among these, that I anticipate the greatest changes. It is 
indeed a remarkable fact, that so many, if not all naked branchiferous 
Gasteropoda should be provided with a shell in their early age, and 
lose this protecting envelop as they grow older, which would lead 
to the conclusion, that among these animals the fact of having a 
shell indicates a rather lower condition. The comparison of Octo- 
pus, Loligo, Sepia and Nautilus would letid to similar conclusions. 
Indeed it is scarcely any longer doubted, that Nautilus has many 
points of resemblance in common with the Gasteropoda, and from its 
numerous tentacles (multiplication being always an indication of a 
lower degree,) must be considered the lowest type among Cephalo- 
poda ; next we should place the Dibranchiate Cephalopoda, among 
which the Argonauta, Avith its external shell, ranks the lowest ; next 
the naked Octopodidse, while the Sepiadae with their ten tentacles and 
internal shell or bone would be the highest in that class. Now if this 
arrangement be the real order of succession of the Cephalopoda accord- 
skin of the caterpillar, (in which state the caterpillar is so seldom examined, from fear 
of disturbing it in its transformation) that under this last skin of the caterpillar, I say, 
the young butterfly assumes the characters of a Coleopteron. It has then an upper pair of 
wings, having the character of elytra, and a lower pair of membranous wings. At that 
time its jaws have not yet assumed the form of a sucker, and are still free, as are also 
the legs. But these parts, which are easily observed in caterpillars immersed in diluted 
alcohol at the very moment when they are casting their last skin, are soon soldered 
together to form the hard coating of the pupa, and are cast off before the perfect butter- 
fly comes out. It is, therefore, correct to say, that the structural condition of Coleoptera, 
in their perfect state, answers to that stage of moulting of Lepidoptera which precedes 
their perfect development. Coleoptera are, therefore, one stage behind Lepidoptera ; 
they rank below them ; they are an inferior degree of development of the type of 
insects. 



CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS. 199 

ing to their structure and development, is it not remarkable, does it 
not indicate the maintenance of the same plan throughout the crea- 
tion, "vvhen we find chambered shells, so abundant throughout the 
ancient geological formations, and belemnites, the analogues of the 
cuttle-fish, beginning late in the secondary epoch in the lias ; whilst 
fossil argonauts do not occur before the tertiary times ? So that 
we might almost conclude, that in this class the order of succession 
of their fossil types is a safer guide for our classification, than ana- 
tomical investigation. 

In the class of Acephala the low position of brachiopods in the 
order of appearance in time, as well as in our estimation of their 
structural standing, is another striking instance of the correspondence 
between the order of geological succession and the gradation in struc- 
ture. I may add as a link for farther inference, that I have seen 
embryonic cyclas attached by a byssus to the gills of the mother. 

There is perhaps no department in which we may expect more 
important results for methodical arrangement from embryological 
researches than that of the Radiata. Let us only consider the met- 
amorphosis of the MedusEB, their first polyp-like condition, their 
division and the final transformation of their stem into several distinct 
individuals, exemplifying in a higher sphere the growth of compound 
Polypi, where the successive bvids remain united upon a common 
stock. Let us remember the free Comatula growing from the egg 
upon a Crinoid-like stem ; let us then remember, that there are ani- 
mals of that class, which preserve throughout life this articulated 
support, and remind us of corals even in the highest class of Radiata ; 
let us farther know, that even the arrangement of plates in those 
Crinoids agree in some respects with the first formed calcareous 
granules in free moving starfishes ; let us finally and above all here 
remember, that those Crinoids with stems are only Echinoderms of 
earlier ages, which die out gradually, to be replaced by new and free 
forms, and there will not be the slightest doubt left in our minds, that 
besides the structure, there is no safer guide to the understanding of 
the plan of the creation of the animal kingdom, as it has been in 
former ages and as it is in our days, than embryological and palaeon- 
tological researches. 

The internal arrangement of these classes as I now conceive it, would 



200 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

require that we introduce Bryozoa among Acephala and place them 
lowest in that class, next the compound and simple Ascidise, and then 
the Brachiopoda and true Acephala. Among Gasteropoda I would 
introduce Foraminifera as their lowest type, exemplifying, in a perma- 
nent condition, the embryonic division of their germ, next the Ptero- 
poda would follow, also as an embryonic form of Gasteropoda, in 
which the lateral fin-like appendages and the symmetrical shell remind 
us of the deciduous shell of naked Gasteropoda with their vibrating 
wheels, and next the Heterobranchia, the common branchiferous Gas- 
teropoda, and uppermost the Pulmonata, in some of which the embryo 
is not even aquatic, nor provided with fringed appendages. As for 
the Cephalopoda, I have recently had sufficient evidence from em- 
bryonic investigations that the Octocera stand below Decacera. 



IV. 

GENERAL REMARKS UPON THE COLEOPTERA OF LAKE 

SUPERIOR. 

' BYJOHNL. LECONTE, M. D. 



The materials which form the basis of the present catalogue, were 
not altogether derived from explorations made during the expedition 
which produced this volume. Thej embrace the results of my col- 
lections during three journeys made to Lake Superior, and were 
procured at various points around the entire circumference of that 
sheet of Avater, and during various months from June to October. 

The distribution of species does not appear to differ materially on 
the two sides of the lake : nevertheless many species occurred on 
the north shore, which were not found on Point Kewenaw, while 
many water beetles were taken at the last mentioned place, which 
were not seen during the present voyage. Still in each case the 
delay at particular localities was so short, that necessarily many 
'even of the most common species would be overlooked. We may 
therefore conclude, that although the evidence is not yet sufficient to 
enable us precisely to distinguish between the products of the differ- 
ent portions of the Lake Superior region, we still have abundant 
material to give a tolerably complete conspectus of the character of 
the entire coleopterous fauna. 

The whole country being still almost in a primitive condition, the 
specimens are equally distributed throughout a large space : the 
woods will not therefore be found very productive to the collector. 
In fact nearly all the species were found adjacent to small streams ; 
or else they were driven on shore, particularly on sand beaches, by 
the winds and waves after being drowned in the lake. So produc- 
tive was the last method of collecting, that on one occasion more 

14 



202 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

than three hundred specimens of Coleoptera, and many insects of 
other orders were procured in less than one hour. 

There are, however, a few points to which the attention of the 
future explorer may be directed, as being most likely to reward him 
for his arduous journey ; these are Eagle Harbor on Point Kewe- 
naw, the Hon. Hudson Bay Co.'s fort at the mouth of Pic River, and 
the islands adjacent to the mouth of Black Bay. 

For the sake of making the catalogue as concise as possible, I 
have used such abbreviations as will render necessary a list of the 
works cited. Where no authority is appended to a name, it is to be 
understood that the name is used for the first time in this book. 
Rarely two references are placed after a name ; in this case the latter 
citation is the more recent, and will be found to give all necessary 
information respecting synonyms, which are accordingly omitted 
here. 

BOOKS CITED IN THE CATALOGUE. 

Am. Ir. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series. 

An. Lye. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York. 

Aabe. Species General des Coleopteres. (Hydrocanthares.) 

B. J. Boston Journal of Natural History. 

Beauv. Palisot de Beauvois. Insects d'Afrique, et d'Amerique. 

Dej. Species General des Coleopteres de la Collection de M. le Comte Dejean. 

Dej. Cat. Catalogue des Coleopteres de sa Collection. 

Er. Erichson, Monographia Staphylinorum. 

Er. Col. March. Erichson, Die Kafer der Mark Brandenburg. 

E7: Germ. Zeit. " in Germar's Zeitschrift fiir die Entomologie. 

Er. Ins. Ge.rm. " Naturgeschichte der Insecten Deutschlands. 

Er. Man. " Entomographien. 

Enc. Encyclopedie Methodique. 

Fahr. El. vel F. El. Fabricius Systema Eleutheratorum. 

Grav. Micr. Gravenhorst, Coleoptera Microptera. 

Germ. Ins. Nov. Gerniar, Insectorum species novje aut minus cognitte. 

Germ. Zeit. Germar, in Germar's Zeitschrift fiir die Entomologie. 

Gory ^ Perch. Grory and Percheron, Monographic des Cetoines. 

Gyll. Fn. Suec. Gyllenhal, Fauna Suecica. 

Hbst. Col. Herbst, Natursystem aller bekannten Insecten : Kafer. 

Hd. Haldeman, in locis variis. 

/. Ac. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 

J. Ac. N. S. Ejusd. op. series nova, 1848. 

Kb. N. Z. Kirby in Fauna Boreali- Americana. Vol. 4. 



REMARKS UPON THE COLEOPTERA. 203 

Lac. Eroty. Lacordaire Monographic des Erotyliens. 

Lac. Chrys. " " des Coleopteres, Subpentameres. 

Lap. Blip. Monographie des Buprestides par Laporte et Gory. 

Lap. Clyt. " du genre Clytus " " " 

Lee. LeConte In Annals of the Lyceum. Vol. 4. 

Lin. Fn. Suec. Linnajus Fauna Suecica. 

Lin. S. N. " Systema Naturas, ed. xii. 

Mels. Melsheimer, in the Proceedings of the Academy of Nat. Sciences. 

N. E. Farmer. New England Farmer. 

Nm. Ent. Mag. Newman. The Entomological Magazine. 

01. Ins. Olivier, Entomologie. Coleopteres. 

P. Ac. The Proceedings of the Academy of Nat. Sciences. 

Putz. Cliv. Putzeys' Monographie des Clivina, in Memoires de la Societe 

Royale des Sciences de Liege. 
Say Exp. Say, in Appendi.x to Long's Expedition to the St. Peters' River. 
Sch. Syn. Schonherr, Synonymia Insectorum. 
Sch. Schonherr, Genera et species Curculionidum. 
St. Ins. Germ. Sturm's Deutschland's Fauna, Insecten. 
Web. Obs. Weber, Observationes Entomologicse. 

CATALOGUE OF INSECTS. 

CiciNDELA Lin. Casxonia Latr. 

purpurea Oliv. Ent. 2, 83, pi. 14. pennsylvanica DeJ. 1, 172. 

marginalis Fahr. El. 1, 240. Lebia Latr. 

longilabris Say. Exp. 2, 2GS. divisa. 

alhilabris Kirhy. N. Z. 12. concinna || Lee. An. Lye. 4, 192, 

repanda Dej. 1, 74. tricolor Say. Am. Tr. 2, 11. 

hirticollis Say. J. Ac. 1, 20. pleuritica Lee. 193. 

hirticoUis Say. Am. Tr. 1, 411. furcata Lee. 193. 

albohirta Dej. 2, 425. fuscata Dej. 1, 270. 

12-guttata Dej. 1, 73. ^ moesta. 

Proteus Kirby. N. Z. 9. viridis Say. Am. Tr. 2, 14. 

vulgaris Say. Am. Tr. 1, 409. pumila Dej. 5, 388. 

obliquata Dej . 1, 72. Cymindis Latr. 

" reflexa. 

1 L. moesta. — Nigro-subaenea, nitida, thorace capite parum latiore, transverso, antice 
rotundato, impressione transversa anteriore profunda; anguste marginato, angulis 
posticis rectis elevatis ; elytris tenuissime striatis, striis punctatis, interstitiis planis- 
siinis, 3'o tripunctato : antennis nigris, concoloribus. Long. .16 unc. Found at Micli- 
ipicotin on Solidago. Resembles L. viridis (Say) but easily distinguished, apart from 
color, by the narrower and longer head, and distinctly punctured stria; of the elytra. 

2 C. reflexa. — Piceo-brunnea, pilosa, capite thoraceque grosse confertim punctatis, 
hoc latitudine breviore, postice angustato, angulis posticis obtusis non rotundatis, mar- 
gine lato valde reflexo, elytris apice oblique sinuato-truncatis, striato-punctatis, inter- 
stitiis planis, disperse punctatis, 3io punctis 3 majusculis ; antennis, palpis, pedibusque 



204 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Dromius Bon. Clivina Bon. 

piceus Dej. 5, 353. americana Dej. 5, 503. 

Cymindis picea Lee. 189. Dyschirius Bon. 

LlONYCHUS Schmidt-Goebel. sphjerlcollis Putseys Cliv. 17. 

subsulcatus. * apicalis. 

Dromius subs. Dej. 2, 451. ^aeneolus. 

latens. globulosus Putz. Cliv. 20. 

Dromius latens, Lee. 191. ^ parvus, 

americanus. ' longulus. 

Dromius Amer. Dej. 5, 361. Calathus. 

PSYDRUS Lee. gregarius Dej. 3, 76. 

piceus Lee. 153. Pristodactyla Dej. 

3 Haplochile Lee. advena Lee. 217. 
pygnisea Lee. 209. 

Morio pygm. Dej. 5, 512. 

rufo-testaceis. Long. '4 unc. In sandy places. This species approaches very near to 
the Rocky Mountain one, which I have considered as cribricollis (Dej.), but the head 
and thorax are still more coarsely and densely punctured, and the latter more narrowed 
behind ; the elytra are obliquely truncate, in some specimens they are rufous at base, 
but have no distinct humeral spot, the interstices are flatter, with smaller and more 
numerous punctures. 

3 By an error of spelling, I formerly wrote Aplochile. 

* D. apicalis. — Subelongatus, nigro-a^neus nitidus, clypeo bidentato, fronte angulatim 
leviter impressa, thorace ovali, latitudine fere longiore, anticc vix angustato, elytris 
thorace parum latioribus, lateribus %"ix rotundatis, stria raarginali ad humerum abbrevi- 
ata, tenuiter striatis, striis ante medium punctatis, 2'i'3a 7"'" 8^aque ad apicem exaratis, 
interstitiis planis S'o tripunctato, antennarum basi palpisque piceis, vel rufo-piceis. 
Lonw. -12 unc. The anterior tibia; have the outer spine scarcely longer than the inner, 
and but slightly curved, on the outer edge is a distinct tooth, and above it two other 
very obsolete denticles. 

s D. a;neolus. — iEneus, elytris nitidissimis, clypeo valde bidentato, fronte transversira 
profunde impressa, thorace subgloboso, antice non angustato, lateribus antice leviter 
rotundatis ; elytris fere parallelis, apice rotundatis, striato-punctatis, punctis pone 
medium externeque obliteratis, stria sutur aliapice distincta, duabusque aliis (exteriore 
lono-iore) brevibus exaratis, marginali ad humerura desiuente, interstitio 3'° tripunc- 
tato. Lon". -15 unc. Two specimens. The terminal spines of the anterior tibia> sub- 
equal, scarcely curved ; the outer edge with two denticles, the superior scarcely visible. 
6 D. par-i-us. — This species is only half the size of D. globulosus, but like it has a 
transverse thorax, narrowed in front. The clypeus is less deeply emarginate, the frontal 
.sulcus not so deep, the elytral strise and points deeper : the internal terminal spine of 
anterior tibiiB only one half the length of the outer one ; the external margin has but 
one denticle. Long. '09. 

T D. longulus. — This differs from D. globulosus, in having the thorax subglobose, 
(the length being equal to the breadth,) not narrowed in front ; the elytra are more 
elongate, the stria; are deeper, and can be traced to the apex, although the points vanish 
at the middle. The Z^ interstice is 3-punctate, the 8'h stria profound at apex ; antennae 
fuscous at apex ; internal spine of anterior tibiae 3-4 as long as the outer one, on the 
outer margin, the lower denticle acute, the upper one obsolete. Long. -11. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 



205 



* Platynus Bon. Brulle, 1835. 
Agonum Bon. Kirhy, 1 83 7. 
Anchomenus Bon. Er. 1837. 
decens. 

Feronia decentis Say. Am. Tr. 2, 53. 

AncTiom. decens Lee. 221. 

Anchom. gagates Dej. 3, 107. 
depressus. [Zee. 221. 

Anch. dep. Hd. P. Ac. 1, 299: 
marginatus. 

Anch. marg. Lee. 221. 
angusticoUis. 

Anch. angus. Lee. 222. 
extensicoUis. 

Feronia extens. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 54. 

Anch. extens. Dej. 3, 113. 
decorus. 

Feronia dec. Say. ib. 2, 53. 

Anch. dec. Dej. 3, 115. 
subcordatus. 

Agonum erythropus Kb. N. Z. 28. 
cupripennis. 

Feronia cup. Say. Tr. 2, 50. 



nitidulus. 

Agonum nit. Dej. 3, 143. 
chalceus. 

Agonum eh. Lee. 224. 
cupreus. 

Agonum cup. Dej. 5, 735. 
' atratus. 
carbo. 
anchomenoides. 

Agonum anch. Randall, B. J. 2, 2^ 
placidus. 

Feronia placida Say. Am. Tr. 2, 43. 

Ag. luctuosum Dej. 3, 172. 
lenis. 

Agonum lenum Dej. 
picipenne Kb. N. Z. 24. 
sordens. 

Agonum sord. Kb. N. Z. 25. 
^^ ruficornis. 
retractus. 

Ag. retractum Lee. 228. 
nigriceps. 

Agonum nig. Lee. 229. 



8 Erichson calls this group Anchomenus, and adds as a reason that Platyna (Wiedeman 
182.5) is a genus of Diptera. Before that time the three Bonellian genera were consid- 
ered distinct, and therefore the name was not vacant ; Brulle having been the first to 
unite these genera, had an unquestionable right to select either of the three names for 
the group. Moreover the name Platynus is suitable for the great majority of the 
species, and the day has long gone by in science, when a generic name may be changed 
because its meaning does not accord with the characters of all the species denoted by it. 

9 P. atratus. — Niger nitidus, thorace rotundato, latitudine vix breviore, antiee sub- 
angustato, basi utrinque late foveato, margine depresso, versus basin anguste reflexo, 
angulis posticis nullis ; impress, basalibus brevibus distinctis ; impress, transv. poste- 
riore distincta ; elytris thorace latioribus, profunde striatis, interstitio 3'o 3-punctato. 
Long. -34. Very much like P. melanarius (Ag. melan. Dej.) but distinguished by the 
smooth basal fovete and less reflexed margin. The elytral striaj are smooth in one spec- 
imen, obsoletely punctured in the other. 

P. carbo. — Niger, nitidus, thorace rotundato, latitudine paulo breviore, basi vix ro- 
tundato, angulis posticis valde obtusis, rotundatis, basi utrinque late foveato, margine 
depresso versus basin angustissime reflexo ; imp. trans, posteriore profunda, basalibus 
minutis in foveis sitis ; elytris thorace latioribus, tenue striatis, interstitiis planis, 3'° 
3-punctato. Long. -So. One specimen. Very like P. (Ag. Dej.), with the basal 
fovea; deeper and more defined, the reflexed margin narrower and the margin itself 
thickened. The base of antennse and palpi have no tendency to become ferruginous. 

'" P. ruficornis. — Elongatus, nigro-piceus nitidus, thorace fere piano, latitudine lon- 
giore, postice subangustato, basi cum angulis rotundato, margine versus basin anguste 
acuteque reflexo, nou incrassato, impress, basalibus fej^e nullis : elytris ellipticis tenue 



206 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



punctlformis. 

Feronia punc. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 58. 

Agonuvi rujipes Dej. 3, 173. 
bembidioides. 

Sericoda bemb. Kb. N. Z. 15. 

Agonum bemb. Lee. 227. 
4-punctatus. 

St.Fm. Germ. Dej. Z. 170. 
PoECiLUS Bon. 

lucublandus Dej. 3, 212. 

Feronia lucub. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 55. 
cbalcites Lee. 231. 

Feronia chalc. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 56. 
convexicollis Lee. 233. 

Feronia conv. Say. I. I. 
^^ Pterostichus Bon. Erichs. 
erytbropus. 

Feronia ery. Dej. 3, 243. 

Platyderus nltidus Kb. N. Z. 29. 

Plalyderus eryth. Lee. 231. 



mandlbularls. 

Argutor mand. Kb. N. Z. 31. 
patruelis. 

Feronia pair. Dej. 5, 759. 

Argutor patr. Lee. 337. 
mutus. 

Feronia muta Say. Am. Tr. 2, 44 

Adelosia muta Lee. 335. 
Luczotil. 

Feronia Lucz. Dej. 3, 321. 

Fer. oblongonotaia Say. Am. Tr. 4, 
425. 

Adelosia oblong. Lee. 335. 
^■"orlnomuru. 

Omaseus or in. Cs. Kb. N. Z. 32. 
punctatlssimus Rand. B. J. 2, 3. 
coracinus. 

Feronia corac, Nm. 
stygicus. 

Feronia styg. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 41. 



striatis, interstitiis planis, Z'° 5-punctato, epipleuris palpis antennisquepiceis.his apice 
rufis, pedibus rufo-testaceis. Long. "SI. 

Varies with the 3'''i elytral interstice 3-punctate. Twice the size of P. lenis, and dis- 
tinguished by the thorax narrowed behind, basal impressions indistinct, the reflexed 
margin broader. P. retractus is much smaller, with a wider thorax and deeper basal 
impressions. 

•' Under this name, following the example of Erichson, I have grouped all the Ameri- 
can species of Dejean's Feronia, excepting the Poecilus, which are sufficiently distinct 
by the antennae. In my catalogue of the Carabica, I admitted as distinct genera nearly 
all the groups proposed by other authors, and attempted to find natural characters for 
them. What success I have had in finding structural differences, the reader may be 
able to judge by referring to the work cited : suffice it to say, that the characters there- 
in detailed are entirely too finely drawn for any practical purpose, and by the progres- 
sive variation which accompanies the variations of form and sculpture, plainly indicate 
the existence of one extensive and natural genus : and fortified as I am by the example 
of Erichson, and the counsel of Zimmerman, I hesitate no longer to merge them into 
one group, under the name quoted above. An attempt has been made to separate 
under the name Hypherpes (Chaudoir) all the species without elytral punctures. But the 
characters of this group will be found as ill-defined as those which have just been sup- 
pressed. Feronia lachrymosa (Nm.) can scarcely be told from adoxabut by the superior 
size, and the presence of elytral punctures ; surely it would be the destruction of all 
natural classification, to separate into different genera, two such closely allied species. 

12 I have had no opportunity of comparing with European specimens, and give the 
species as identical on the authority of Kirby and Klug, having in my cabinet an Oregon 
specimen, which has been actually examined by the latter gentleman. Dr. Zimmer- 
man thinks it to be different, and proposes the name septentrionalis, which must there- 
fore be adopted if the species prove distinct. 



BEMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 



207 



corvinus. 

Feronia corv. Dej. 3, 281. 
caudicalis. 

Feronia caud. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 56. 
sodalis. 

Feronia sod. Lee. 349. 
'^ tenuis, 
adoxus. 

Feronia adoxa Say. Am. Tr. 2, 46. 

Feronia tristis Dej. 3, 324. 
fastidltus. 

Feronia fastid. Dej. 3, 323. 
Myas Zieg. 

foveatus Lee. 355. 
ISOPLEURUS Kb. 

hyperboreus Lee. 357. 

Amara hyper. Dej. 5, 800. 
septentrlonalis Lee. 358. 
Tri^na Lee. 
angustata Lee. 365. 

Feronia any. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 36. 

Amara any. Say. ib. 4. 
indistincta Lee. 365. 

Amara indis. Hd. P. Ac. 1, 300. 



depressa Lee. 365. 
"Amara Latr. 

inequalls, Kb. N. Z. 39. 
splendida Hd. P. Ac. 1 , 300. 
gibba. 

Celia gibba Lee. 360. 
impuncticoUis, Say. Am. Tr. 4, 428. 

Feronia imp. Say. ib. 2, 36. 
fallax Lee. 362. 
convexa Lee. 363. 
avida. 

Zabrus avidus Say. J. Ac. 3, 148. 

Pelor avi. Say. Am. Tr. 4, 428. 

Brady tus av. Lee. 367. 

Amara conjinis Dej. 3, 512. 
Percosia Zim. 

obesa Hd. P. Ac. 1, 297. 

Feronia obesa Say. Am. Tr. 2, 37. 

Amara obesa Say. ib. 4, 428. 
CuRTONOTUS Steph. 1828. 

Leirus Zim. 1832. 
^^ convexlusculus Steph. Kb. N. Z. 35. 
" elongatus. 



'3 p. tenuis. — Elongatus, niger nitidus, thorace capite vix latiore, latitudine parum 
breviore, quadrato, postice leviter angustato, lateribus pone, medium sinuatis, angulis 
posticis rectis prominulis, basi utrinque profunde impresso, bistriato, punctatoque : 
elytris tenue striato-punctatis, interstitio 3'° 3-punctato ; palpis pedibusque rufo-piceis. 
Long. -32, lat. •14. Readily known by its narrow form : the head is constricted and 
punctured behind the eyes : the elytral striaj are fainter towards the apex, which is not 
at all sinuate. 

i* I have merged into Amara the group Celia (Zim.), as it differs from the typical 
species neither in habitus nor characters, the sole ground for separation being a sexual 
character of slight import. I have also replaced in the genus, Zabrus avidus (Say) as 
it has not the characters of Bradytus, (to which I formerly referred it), the tibia3 being 
alike in both sexes. 

'5 I have a specimen which agrees perfectly with Dejean's description, but the thorax 
is more narrowed behind than in the figure (Icon. Col. Eur. 3, pi. 170, fig. 2.) No 
opportunity for direct comparison has yet occurred. The species is totally distinct 
from the two described by me in the 4"' vol. of the Annals of the Lyceum. 

'® C. elongatus. — Elongatus, gracilis, rufo-piceus nitidus, thorace quadrato, latitudine 
non breviore, antice subangustato, lateribus rotundato, angulis posticis subrectis, non 
rotundatis, basi utrinque bistriato leviterque punctato, elytris thorace latioribus, tenui- 
ter striatis, striis ad basin leviter punctatis. Long. '4. <J with the intermediate tibije 
strongly bidentate, the mentum tooth narrowed in front and deeply impressed. 



208 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



AcRODON Zim. 

" subjenea. 
Agonoderus Dej. 

pallipes Dej. 4, 53. 
Anisodactylus Dej. 

nigerrimus. 

Harpalus nig. Dej. 5, 842. 
Harp. laticoUis, Kb. N. Z. 43. 

baltimorensis Dej. 4, 152. 
EURYTRICHCS Lec. 

terminatus Lec. 387. 

Feronia term. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 48. 
Harpalus term. Dej. 4, 355. 
Harpalus. 

bicolor Say. Am. Tr. 2, 26. 

erythropus Dej. 4, 258. 

pleuriticus Kb. N. Z. il. 

proximus Lec. 398. 

herblvagus Say. Am. 7r. 2, 29. 

megacephalus Lec. 397. 

'^ laticeps. 

rufimanus Lec. 402. 

varicornis Lec. 401. 
Geobjenus Dej. Lec. 

quadricollis Lec. 405. 

tibialis Lec. 405. 

Trechus lib. Kb. N. Z. 46. 

luoubris Lec. 405. 



cordicollis Lec. 406. 
rupestris Lec. 406. 
Trechus rup. Say. 
Trechus Jlavipes Kb. N. Z. 47. 
Acupalpus elongatulus Dej. 4,457. 
Stenolopiius Dej. 
ochropezus Dej. 4, 424. 
fuliginosus Dej. 4, 423. 

versiculor Kb. N. Z. 46. 
carbonari us Lec. 409. 

Harpalus carbonarius Dej. 4, 398. 
misellus Lec. 410. 

Acupalpus mis. Dej. 4. 
Chl.enius Bon. 
chlorophanus Dej. 5, 662. 
sericeus Say. Am. Tr. 2, 61. 
impunctifrons Say. ib. 2, 64. 

emarginatusX Kirby N. Z. 23. 
nemoralis Dej. 

tomentosus Dej. 3, 357: Lec. 438. 
LoRiCERA Latr. 
pilicornis Gyll. F. Suec. 2, 45: Dej. 
2, 293. 
Cychrus Fabr. 
"bilobus Say. 
Sph^roderus Dej. 
Brevorti Lec. 443. 
Lecontei Dej. 2, 15: Lec. 442. 



'^ A. subasnea. — This species differs from the smaller and dark colored specimens of 
A. rubrica (Hd) in being narrower, and more convex. The thorax is scarcely wider than 
ong, and not nearly so much narrowed in front ; the two basal impressions on each side 
are deeper, the elytral striae are deeper and more punctured ; the color above is dark 
piceous, slightly bronzed, antenna; and feet testaceous. Long. -27. 

'8 H. laticeps. — Niger nitidus, palpis solum rufo-piceis, capite magno obtuso, thorace 
latitudine sesqui breviore, lateribus parum rotundato, basi truncato, angulis posticis 
subrectis, margine versus basin modice explanato, cum basi obsolete punctato, impres- 
sionibus basalibus linearibus, brevibus, linea longitudinali distincta: elytris thorace non 
latioribus lateribus subrotundatis, tenuiter profunda striatis, interstitiis parum convexis, 
tibiis posticis et interraediis valde spinulosis. Long. 'S-'S. $ Elytris nitidis ; 9 opa- 
cis. Like H. rufimanus, but three times larger. 

'9 C. bilobus. — Purpureo-niger nitidus, thorace subtransverso, postice valde angus- 
tato, canaliculato, basi impresso punctatoque; elytris elongato-ovalibus, pone basin 
subampliatis, apice attenuatis, profunde crenato-striatis aeneo-violaceis, antennarum 
apice palpisque piceis. Long. -5. 

St. Ignace ; $ has the anterior tarsi scarcely dilated. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 209 



Carabus Lin. ^ moesta. 

eerratus Say. Am. Tr. 2, 77. - '^suturalis. 

lineatopunctatus Dej. Omophron Latr. 

sylvosus Say. ib. 2, 75. americanum DeJ. 5, 583. 

'^ Agassii. Sayl Kb. N. Z. 65. 

Calosoma Fabr. tesselatum Say, J. Ac. 3, 152. 

calidum Fabr. 1, 211. Lecontei Dej. 5, 582. 

frigidum Kb. N. Z. 19, Elaphrus Fabr. 

Nebria Latr. ^ politus. 

pallipes Say. Am. Tr. 2, 78. 

20 C. Agassii. — Niger, thorace valde rugoso, latitudine paulo breviore, quadrate, pos- 
tice leviter angustato, margine versus basin anguste reflexo, angulis basalibus retror- 
Bum productis, elytris thorace sesqui latioribus ellipticis, dense seriatim punctatis foveis- 
que parum distinctis 3-plici serie impressis. Long. "SB. 

Kakabeka— Dr. Stout. At first sight seems to be a faded specimen of C. sylvosus 
(Say), but the thorax is very rugous, the sides more narrowly reflexed, and the basal 
angles much more produced. The sculpture of the elytra is similar, but more distinct. 
It is more closely allied to C. tadatus (Fabr.), from Oregon, but the head is less im- 
pressed, and the elytra less deeply foveate, with the sides regularly but slightly round- 
ed, not straight and narrowed anteriorly as in C. tsedatus. Anything that I can say in 
praise of the philosopher and gentleman after whom it is named would be quite super- 
fluous. 

'^^ N. moesta. — Depressiuscula nigra nitida, thorace latitudine duplo fere breviore la- 
teribus marginato, valde rotundato, postice valde angustato, constrictoque, angulis pos- 
ticis rectis, antice posticeque transversim profunde impresso, punctatoque, impress, 
basalibus profundis : elytris subparallelis thorace latioribus striis leviter punctatis, 8^a 
fere obliterata, interstitio 3'° o-punctato : antennarum apice tibiis tarsisque rufo- 
piceis. Long. •41. 

This maybe Kirby's Helobia castanipes (which I incorrectly cited as N. pallipes Say), 
as Dr. Schaum writes me it is very like N. Gyllenhalii, to which our insect has the 
closest resemblance. My specimens have not the strife between the eyes mentioned by 
Kirby, nor are the feet castaneous: the margin of the thorax is sometimes obsoletely 
punctured. 

*- N. suturalis. — Elongata depressa, nigra, thorace latitudine fere duplo breviore, lateri- 
bus marginato, margine postice latiore, rotundatoque, basi angustato non constrieto, an- 
gulis posticis obtusis, basi truncate, cum margine obsolete punctato, antice posticeque 
profunde transversim impresso, elytris elongatis thorace latioribus obscure rufis, sutura 
nigricante, striis leviter punctatis interstitiis fere planis, 3'o 5-punctato, antennis tibiis 
tarsisque rufo-piceis vel rufis. Long. -44. 

The 8th stria is less deep than the others, but not obliterated ; the punctures in the 
marginal series are more numerous than in the preceding. Found on the islands at 
the mouth of Black Bay. 

23 E. politus. — Obscure seneus, politus, capite sparsim punctato, vertice foveato, oeci- 
pite profunde impresso ; thorace capita non latiore antice angulatim valde impresso, 
dein canaliculato, disco utrinque profunde foveato, ad latera apicem basinque sparsim 
punctato ; elytris sparsim punctulatis foveis ocellatis purpureis 4-plici serie impressis, 
pedibus rufo-seneis ; ante-pectore punctato. Long. -34. One specunen : Maple Island. 
Dr. Stout. 



210 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



^ punctatissimus. 

**sinuatus. 

ruscarius Say. Am. Tr. 4, 417. 
Blethisa Bon. 

quadricollis Hd. Pr. Ac. 3. 149. 
NOTIOPHILUS Dumeril. 

''^punctatus. 

porrectus. Say. Am. Tr. 2. 4, 418. 
Patrobus Meg. 

longicornis Say. Am. Tr. 4, 421. 
Feronia long. Say. ibid, 2, 40. 
Patrobus americanus Dej. 3, 34. 
Epaphius Leach. 

micans Lee. 414. 

fulvus Lee. 415. 
Bembidium Latr. 

sigillare Say. Am. Tr. 4, 437. 
stigmaticum Dej. 5, 83. 

impressum Gyl. Dej. 5, 81. 



paludosum St. Ins. Germ. 6, 179. Dej. 

5, 79. 
lacustre Lee. 451. 
Odontium Lee. 
coxendix Lee. 452. 

Bembidium cox. Say. J. Ac. 3, 151. 
nitidulum Lee. 452. 

Bembidium nit. Dej. 5, 84. 
Bemb. coxendix Say. Am. Tr. 4, 
436. 
OCHTHEDROMUS Zim. Lec. 
americanus Lec. 453. 

Bemb. americanum Dej. 5, 84. 
salebratus Lec. 453. 
dilatatus Lec. 455. 
antiquus Lec. 455. 

Bemb. antiquum Dej. 5, 88. 
planatus Lec. 456. 



^* E. punctatissimus. — Lsete viridi-seneus, supra et subtus confertissime subtiliter 
punctatus ; thorace subtransverso, capite non angustiore, antice profunda impresso, 
dein canaliculate, disco utrinque foveato ; elytris latitudine sesqui longioribus pone 
basin leviter sinuatis, foveis ocellatis purpureis 4-plici serie impressis, spatiisque laevi- 
gatis 2-plici serie notatis: pectore medio liEvi, tibiis femorumque basitestaceis. Long. 
•27, lat. -13. 

Sault ; common. Punctuation much finer and more dense than in E. ruscarius (Say). 
The anterior Isevigated space is quadrate and extends to the suture : the sides of the 
abdomen are so finely punctured as to appear granulate. 

2* E. sinuatus. — Lffite viridi-Eeneus, supra et subtus confertissime subtiliter punctatus, 
thorace latitudine fere longiore, capite parum angustiore, antice profunde transversim 
impresso, canaliculato, disco utrinque foveato ; elytris latitudine duplo longioribus, 
pone basin profundius sinuatis, dein vix conspicue ampliatis ; foveis spatiisque lae- 
vigatis sicut in praecedente : pectore medio laevi, tibiis femorumque basi ferrugineis. 
Long. 'SI, lat. 'IS. Pic; two specimens. Narrower than the preceding, the punctures 
of the side of the abdomen are more distinct ; but still the pectora are more closely 
punctured than in E. ruscarius. 

*® N. punctatus. — Nigro-seneus, nitidus capite 7-striato striis externis latis, thorace 
transverso, postice angustato, angulis posticis rectis, punctato, disco utrinque licvi, 
basi utrinque foveato : elytris ante medium 1-foveatis, stria scutellari unica notatis, 
suturali, externisque 8 minus approximatis dense punctatis, stria 7™^ mox pone hu- 
merum, alteris versus apicem levioribus, 6*" solum Integra ; tibiis antennarumque art. 
2ndo 3io 4to que rufescentibus. Long. -2. 

Size of N. porrectus ; but the striae are more densely punctured, less obliterated, and 
the feet and antennoe black. It resembles much N. confusus Lec. (semistriatus Say, 
teste Harris), but the 1'' stria is not curved and exarate at tip, the base of the anten- 
nae less decidedly pale, and the scutellar stria is not double. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 



211 



'° planipennis. 
longulus Lee. 456. 
patruelis Lee. 459. 

Bemb.patr. Dej. 5, 69. 
variegatus Lee. 459. 

Bemh. var. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 89. 
timidus Lee. 460. 
versicolor Lee. 462. 

Notaphus variegatus Kb. N. Z. 58. 
afBnis Lee. 462. 

Bemh. affine Say Am. Tr. 2, 86. 

Bemb.fallax Dej. 5, 189. 

Bemb. deeipiens Dej. 5, 159. 
4-maculatus Lee. 462. 

Bemb. oppositum Say. Am. Tr. 2, 86. 
'' axillaris, 
frontalis Lee. 462. 
sulcatus Lee. 463. 
trepidus Lee. 463. 
gelidiis i«c. 464. 
nitens. 
picipes Lee. 465. 

Peryphus picipes Kb. N. Z. 54. 



tetracolus Lee. 465. 

5. tetracolum Say. 

Peryphus rupicola Kb. N. Z 53. 
substrictus Lee. 465. 
lucidus Lee. 466. 
transversalis iec. 466. 

Bemb. trans. Dej. 5, 110. 
planus Lee. 467. 

Peryphus planus Hd. P. Ac. 1, 303. 
niger Lee. 467. 

Bemb. nigrum Say Am. Tr. 2, 85. 
nitidus Lee 468. 

Eudromus nitidus Kb. N. Z. 55. 
Tachys Knock. 
xanthopus Lee. 469. 

Bemb. xanthopus Dej. 5, 60. 
incurvus Lee. 469. 

Bemb. inc. Say Am. TV. 4, 480. 
inornatus Lee. 470. 

Bemb. inorn. Say ib. 2, 88.. 

Tachyta picipes Kb. N. Z. 56. 
laevus Lee. 472. 

£. Icevum Say. Am. Tr. 2, 87. 



3** O. planipennis. — Depressus, niger pernitidus, thorace quadrato, postice vix angus- 
tato, angulis posticis obtusis non rotundatis, impressione posteriore profunda, basi 
utrinque parum irapressa, elytris purpureis, c)'aneo-micantibus, profunda striatis, striis 
antice subpunctatis, punctisque 2 impressis : antennarum basi pedibusque rufis. Long. 
•19. 

Kaministiquia River below Kakabeka Falls. This species is very similar to O. purpu- 
rascens Lee, but the basal impression of the thorax is single, and less profound ; the 
striae of the elytra are less punctured ; the 8* and 9* strife are obliterated. 

31 H. longulus. — Elongato-ovalis, rufus, capite thoraceque punctatis, hoc striola 
utrinque basali, elytris apice oblique subtruncatis, sutura vix acuminata, punctato- 
striatis, interstitiis uniseriatim sparse punctulatis, maculis utrinque 5 vix conspicue 
infuscatis. Long. '11. 

Narrower than the others ; outline regularly oval : tip of elytra more obliquely 
Sinuate than in H. americanus, but scarcely truncate. The points of the thorax are 
more distant immediately behind the middle of the disc ; the thorax is slightly infuscat- 
ed at the apex. Varies without any elytral spots. 

3' O. axillaris. — ^Nigro-a;neus, pernitidus, thorace convexo, valde cordato, antice vix 
impresso, basi utrinque 1-foveato, elytris subtiliter seriatim punctatis, punctis pone 
medium obliteratis, macula magna axillari, tibiis tarsisque albidis. Long. -13. 

Sault. Very much like 0. 4-maculatus, but a little larger ; the anteance, palpi and 
femora are black, and the punctures of the elytra very small. 



212 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Haliplus Latr. ^ diffinis. 

americanus Aub£, 21. * fasciventrls Say. Exp. 2, 270. 

'''borealis. carolinus Aube, 120. 

longulus. vertlcalis Say. Am, Tr. 2, 92. 

^ nitens. Acilius Leach. 

** crlbrarius. fraternus Harris. N. E. Farmer. 

Djttiscus Linne. semisulcatus Aube. 

confluentus (confluens) Say. Am. Tr. Hydaticus Leach. 

4, 440. liberus. 

Oolighukii Kb. N. Z. 75. Dytiscus liberus Say. J. Ac. 5, 160. 

** Cordieri Aube', 108. H. brunnipennis Aube, 203. 

Harrisii Kb. N. Z. 76. nigricollis Kb. N. Z. 73. 

^2 H. borealis. — Ovalis, rufo-testaceus nitidus, thorace punctato, elytris apice oblique 
truncatis, sutura acuminata, valde punctato-striata, interstitiis sparsim uniseriatim 
punctulatis ; basi anguste, sutura, apice maculisque utrinque Snigris. Long. •12. 

One half larger than H. americanus, and easily known by the want of the basal striola 
of the thorax ; the base of the elytra is blackened along the edge : the spots placed as 
in H. americanus. 

3* H. nitens. — Ovalis convexus, pallidus pernitidus, capita postice, thorace antice nigro- 
maculatis, hoc densius punctato (grossius ad basin) ante basin transversim leviter im- 
presso, la-vigatoque, elytris valde punctato-striatis, interstitiis uniseriatim punctatis, 
sutura angustissime, apice, guttisque utrinque 6 minutis nigris. Long. -15. 

Head finely punctured, with a smooth vertical space. Elytra slightly, but not suddenly 
dilated behind the thorax, then regularly narrowed to the tip, which is obliquely trun- 
cate and acuminate : the disc is marked with two spots at the anterior third placed 
obliquely forward and outwards, just behind the middle 2 or 3 nearly transversely, and 
2 or 3 more obliquely backwards and outwards at the posterior fourth. Varies, with the 
posterior spots wanting. St. Ignace. 

33 H. cribrarius. — Ovalis convexus, pallide testaceus, capite postice, thorace antice 
nigro-maculatis, hoc apice bisinuato, densius punctato, basi grosse sparse punctato, 
punctis transversim sub-biseriatim digestis, elytris grosse punctato-striatis, interstitiis 
uniseriatim punctatis, sutura angustissime, apice guttisque 6 vel 7 parvis nigris. 
Long. -17. 

Very similar to the preceding, but the points above and beneath are larger. The 
elytra are less attenuated behind the dilated part, the sides being nearly parallel. 

34 I found the elytra of a $ , and have seen perfect specimens from Lake Huron. 
It is smaller than D. Harrisii, the oblique yellow band at the tip of the elytra is very 
distinct, the sulci terminate at J from the apex, and are not confluent. In the latter 
species the $ has smooth elytra. 

35 D. diffinis. — Elongato-ellipticus antice vix angustatus, supra nigro-olivaceus 
nitidus, labro clypeo capitis macula angulata, thoracis margine toto, elytrorum lateribus, 
corporeque subtus toto testaceis, abdomine utrinque vix infuscato ; lobis metasterni 
postice divergentibus, apice acute rotundatis. Long. 1'15, lat. "61. 

i elytris 3-seriatim punctatis, punctis pone medium paucis dispersis. 

Eagle Harbor. Mr. Rathvon. Form of confluens, but only one half the size. The 
sides of the thorax scarcely rounded, the posterior yellow margin scarcely wider in the 
middle than at the angles. 

36 Varies with the posterior margin of the thorax, narrowly testaceous. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 21^ 

" fascicollis Harris N. E. Farmer ? erythropterus Aube, 305. 

zonatus ^"° Aube, 214. Colymhetes ery. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 95. 

COLYMBETES Clairvilh. strlatus Aube, 305. 

sculptilis Harris I. c. Colymb. stri. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 97. 

triseriatus Kb. N. Z. 73. Agabus arctus Mels. P. Ac. 2, 27. 

'^binotatus Han: I. c.f "parallelus. 

maculicollis Aube, 245. obtusus. 

agilis Aube, 254. Coiym. obi. Say. Am,. Tr. 2, 99. 

Ilybius Er. nitidus ? Say. 2, 98. 

** pleuriticus. Agabus gagates Aube, 306. 

picipes Kb. N. Z. 71. stagninus. 

Agabus Er. Col. stagn. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 100. 

*•* angustus. Agabus striola Aube', 308. 



^ This species is more narrowed anteriorly than its European analogue, and wants 
the narrow rufous line at the base of the thorax ; moreover the ? has the external basal 
portion of the elytra more densely and distinctly punctulate. 

38 I know not whether Dr. Harris' name is published. In case it is, Aube's C. binota- 
tus (p. 247, a West Indian species) must fall. I have the less hesitation in giving our 
species as identical with the Mexican C. maculicollis, as I found at the Rocky Mountains 
numerous specimens, which do not differ from those obtained at the north. Mr. Melly, 
from actual comparison, also informs me that it is identical. 

'9 I. pleuriticus. — Angustior oblongo-ovalis convexus, postice suboblique attenuatus, 
supra a;neus, minute reticulatus opacus, capite in vertice binotato, anticeque rufo, elytris 
pone basin vix dilatatis subparallelis, pone medium gutta oblonga, alteraque versus 
apicem pallidis, epipleuris pedibusque piceis, vel rufo-piceis. Long. lat. 

Narrower than I. biguttulus, less dilated behind, the sides of the elytra being almost 
parallel for nearly | of their length, then gradually attenuated to the apex ; the irregu- 
lar series of points are more distinct behind the middle. 

I. picipes : What I consider as this species is much smaller, narrower and less convex 
than I. biguttulus, the thorax less abbreviate, somewhat rounded on the sides ; elytra 
nearly parallel, and less suddenly attenuated at the tip ; the confused rows of points 
are more distinct. My specimen is immature, and the body is rufo-piceous. 

■'*' A. angustus. — Depressus, anguste ovalis, postice suboblique attenuatus, niger 
subopacus, capite subtiliter, thorace elytrisque grossiusreticulatis, illo margine anguste 
depresso, lateribus ante medium rotundatis, angulis posticis acutis subproductis, ore 
antennis, palporumque basi ferruginei.s. Long. lat. 

Very distinct from its large size and peculiarly shaped thorax. The rows of impress- 
ed points on the elytra are distinct, and the reticulations become finer at the apex 
and margin. 

■" A. parallelus. — $ 9 Elongato-ellipticus depressus, niger nitidus subtilissime retic- 
ulato-strigosus, capite antice vix ferrugineo, antennis palpisque ferrugineis. Long. -38, 
lat. -2. 

Differs from A. striatus in being more elliptical, the two ends being similarly rounded, 
and the elytra quite parallel for the greater part of their length ; the head is wider and 
the thorax less narrowed in front. The reticulations are a little more evident than in 
that species. 



214 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

taeniatus Aube, 311. Colymb. int. Fabr. 1, 267. 

Colymbetes toen. Harris N. E. F. ? Colymb. venustus S. Am. Tr. 2, 98. 

ambiguus. Coptot. serripalpis Say. ib. 4, 443. 

Colymb. amb. Say. Am. Tr. 2, 96. Laccophilus Leach. 

Ay. infuscaius Aube, 330. maculosus Say. Am. Tr. 2, 100. 

punctulatus Aube, 332. americanus Aube', 442. 

semipunetatus. Hydroporus Clairville. 

Col. semip. Kb. N. Z. 69. punctatus Aube, 4 71. 

fiinbriatus. Laccoph. punct. Say. Exp. 2, 271. 

Ag. reticulatus\ Aube, 335. cuspidatus Germ ; Aube, 477. 

tristis Aube, 356. Hygrotus pustulatus Mels. P. Ac 

bifarius. 2, 29. 

Colymb. bif. Kb. N. Z.71. ^ sericeus. 

COPELATUS Er. *^ consiniilis. 

Chevrolatii Aube, 389. affinis Say. Am. Tr. 2, 104. 

COPTOTOMUS Say. nanus Aube', 504. 

interrogatus ^wJe, 393. **12-lineatus. 

similis Klrby N. Z. 68. 

<2 H. sericeus. — Ovalis eonvexiusculus, confertissime punctulatus, densius fulvo- 
pubescens, rufus : clypeo late maiginato, thorace lateribus obliquis rectis cum elytris 
angulum obtusissimum formantibus, antice posticeque anguste nigricante ; elytris 
atro-brunneis, lineis 4 plus minusve interruptis margineque lato ferrugineis, hoc pone 
medium bimaculato. Long. "18. 

^ nitidiusculus, pube minus longa, thorace subtiliter punctato. 

9 opaca, pube longiore, tota subtilissime punctata. 

The interrupted lines have not a tendency to coalesce into fascise, as in H. pubipen- 
nis (Aube), from which it is easily known by the longer pubescence and finer punctua- 
tion ; the body is less attenuated behind, and a little more convex. The thorax is 
much more narrowly margined, and, when viewed sideways, forms a very slight angle 
with the margin of the elytra. 

■*3 H. consimilis. — Ovalis eonvexiusculus, postice modice attcnuatus, confertissime 
punctulatus, breviter dense fulvo-pubescens, ferrugineus, clypeo late marginato, thorace 
lateribus obliquis rotundatis, cum elytris angulum obtusissimum formante, antice 
posticeque infuscato ; elytris atro-brunneis, margine fasciis 2 irregularibus maculaque 
apicali ferrugineis. Long. -IS. 

^ capite thoraceque nitidulis, hoc distinctius punctato differt. 

Spots as in the last, but confluent into bands ; from H. pubipennis distinguished by 
the rounded and more narrowly margined sides of the thorax. 

'•'' H. 12-lineatus. — Elongato-ovalis minus convexus, omnium subtilissime alutaceus, 
sparsimque punctulatus, subtus niger, supra testaceus, vertice nigro bimaculato, thorace 
lateribus subrotundatis, cum elytris angulum formantibus, postice vix transversim 
depresso nigro bimaculato, elytris versus apicem oblique attenuatis, sutura lineolis 
utrinque 6 maculisque 2 sub-marginalibus nigris ; antennarum basi palpis pedibusque 
testaceis. Long. "17. 

3 elytris apice integro vix obliquo. 

9 elytris apice truncato, fere bidentato. 

Les Ecrits. Thorax bisinuate at base, external angles not at all rounded or obtuse ; 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 215 

*°picatus Kirhj ib. 68. ** tenebrosus. 

parallelus Say. J. Ac. 3, 153. "puberulus. 

Kh. N. Z. 67. ** caliginosus. 

interruptus Say. Am. Tr. 4, 445. ** tartaricus. 

niger Say. ib, 2, 102. ^varians. 

modestus Aube, 577. discicollis Say. Am. Tr. 4, 446. 

in some specimens, besides the basal spots there is an oblique black line towards the 
margin. The 3'^ and 6^^ elytral lines alone attain the base ; at the tip they are gradu- 
ally shorter externally, and the 4'h, 5*, and 6"» are united. Seems allied to H. frater 
Steph. (Conf. Aube, .528). Were it not for the obsolete punctures and yellow head, it 
would be H. lajvis, Kirby, N. Z., 68. 

*^ I must give Kirby's species as distinct, although Dr. Schaum tells me their Euro- 
pean analogues are considered identical, lineellus being a $ variety of picipes. I have 
both ^ $ of our species, each agreeing with its opposite sex in sculpture, and differ- 
ing only in lustre, the $ being shining, the ? opaque. 

^8 H. tenebrosus — EUiptico-ovalis, minus convexus, niger subtiliter pubescens, mi- 
nus dense subtiliter punctatus, capite antice posticeque obsolete ferrugineo, thorace 
valde transverse lateribus obliquis leviter rotundatis obsolete ferrugineis, cum elytris 
angulis non formantibus, disco obsoletius punctato : pedibus obscure ferrugineis. 
Long. -17. 

Resembles H. americanus, but is darker colored, and less convex ; the punctuation 
of the thorax is less distinct in the middle, that of the elytra less dense ; there are 
traces of a stria I way between the suture and margin. 

$ pube breviore indistincta puncturaque sparsiore differt. 

^'^ H. puberulus. — Elongato-ovalis, minus convexus, niger minus dense punctatus 
pubescens, thorace lateribus rotundatis cum elytris angulum formantibus, disco minus 
punctato, elytris parallelis, apice oblique attenuatis ; antennis palpis pedibusque rufis. 
Long. "12. 

Resembles the two next, but is narrower, a little more convex, the posterior angles of 
the thorax are somewhat obtuse, and the sides form an angle with the elytra. 

■*8 H. caliginosus. — Ovalis minus convexus niger nitidus, minus subtiliter punctatus, 
sparseque pubescens, thorace lateribus obliquis vix rotundatis. disco obsoletius punc- 
tato ; elytris basi vix conspicue angustatis, apice oblique attenuatis : antennis palpis 
pedibusque rufis. Long. -14. 

More convex than the following, less parallel and more acute behind : the punctures 
of the elytra are much larger and more distant. 

■*9 H. tartaricus. — Ovalis fere ellipticus, depressiusculus, niger minus dense subtilius 
punctatus, sparseque pubescens, thorace lateribus obliquis vix rotundatis, disco obsole- 
tius punctato, basi depressa, elytris parallelis, apice subrotundatim attenuatis, anten- 
nis palpis pedibusque rufis. Long. -14. 

S nitidus : 9 subtiliter alutacea, opaca. * 

"" H. varians. — Ovalis, modice elongatus minus dense punctatus, vix conspicue 
pubescens, thorace nigro, punctis in disco sparsioribus, lateribus rectis subobliquis, cum 
elytris angulum obtusum formantibus ; elytris lateribus parum rotundatis, apice vix 
oblique attenuatis, antennis palpis pedibusque testaceis. Long. -12. 

a Capite elytrisque testaceis, his margine, maculaque communi pone medium piceis. 

(i Capite rufo, elytris nigro-piceis, versus basin indeterminate piceis. 



216 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

" lurldipennis. Gyrinus Lin. 

^ notabilis. afBnis Aube, 669. 

^ conoideus. patruells. 

^ ovoideus. conformls Dej\ 

" suturalis. venlralis Auhe\ 6 72. 

**dispar. ventralis Kb. K Z. 80. 

Every intermediate variety occurs : a is more common on the south, /? on the north 
of the lake. 

81 H. luridipennis. — Elliptico-ovalis, subdepressus, niger dense subtiliter punctatus 
breviterque pubescens, capite antice posticeque ferrugineo, thorace lateribus obliquis, 
rectis, anguste ferrugineis, disco sparsius punctulato, elytris apice vix oblique attenuatis 
fulvis ; antennis palpis, pedibusque rufis. Long. -17. Eagle Harbor. 

*2 H. notabilis. — Elongato-ovalis, antice obtusus, postice oblique attenuatus, nigro- 
piceus pubescens, capite punctulato, antice posticeque testaceo, thorace dense punctu- 
lato, obsoletius in disco, basi obsolete depressa, lateribus valde obliquis rotundatis, 
elytris elongatis, confertissime subtiliter puuctatis, piceis, margine pallidiorc, anten- 
nis tenuibus, cum palpis pedibusque rufis. Long. -21. One specimen, Black Bay. 

83 H. conoideus. — Elongato-obconicus, nitidus, capite rufo, thorace nigro, lateribus 
rufis obliquis leviter rotundatis, basi utrinque obliquo, non sinuato, obsoletius punctula- 
to, ad latera parce punctato, lineaque punctorum ad apicem ; elytris parce punctatis, 
rufo-testaceis ; antennis minus tenuibus cum palpis pedibusque testaceis. Long. -2. 

3 antennis articulis 3 — 6 dilatatis, compressis. One specimen. Eagle Harbor. 

8< H. ovoideus. — Convexus, utrinque modice attenuatus, subtus nigro-piceus, supra 
ochraceus, capite infuscato, macula verticali pallida, thorace brevi lateribus obliquis vix 
rotundatis, cum elytris angulum obtusum formantibus, basi infuscato, sparsim subtili- 
ter punctulato, punctis majoribus ad basin et latera interjectis, aliisque densioribus ad 
apicera transversim ordinatis ; elytris minus sparsim punctatis, stria suturali vix im- 
pressa, sutura antice laevigata : antennis palpis pedibusque ferrugineis. Long. 'IS. 

^ femina paulo nitidior. Eagle Harbor. 

88 H. suturalis. — Ovalis modice convexus, postice leviter attenuatus subtus niger, 
undique densius minus, subtiliter punctatus, capite testaceo ad oculos infuscato thorace, 
lateribus obliquis parum rotundatis cum elyti'is vix angulatis, testaceo basi apiceque 
anguste, medioque triangulariter nigro, punctis ad basin et apicem densioribus, trans- 
versim ordinatis ; elytris lateribus vix rotundatis ad apicem suboblique attenuatis, 
fuscis, margine basali lateralique cum apice, sutura lineisque 1 vel 2 anticis, antennis 
pedibusque testaceis. Long. -IS. 

At first sight seems to be a variety of the preceding. It is less convex and less nar- 
rowed in front. The points of the elytra at the base are unequal, but at the apex 
they become more dense and equal. 

86 H. dispar. — Regulariter elliptico-ovalis, minus convexus, subtus niger, supra cum 
antennis pedibusque ferrugineus nitidus, capite thoraceque dense subtiliter punctatis, 
hoc punctis ad basin et apicem transversim densioribus, lateribus obliquis leviter rotunda- 
tis, cum elytris (lateraliter visis) angulum obtusum formantibus ; elytris apice rotundatim 
attenuatis, sparsim subtiliter punctulatis et minus subtiliter sat dense punctatis, pree- 
cipue ad apicem. Long. '15. 

Some of the scattered punctures at the base of the elytra have a tendency to form 
three distant longitudinal bands, the first being near the suture. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 



217 



lateralis. 

minutus Linn^, Aube, 683. 

revolvens. 

circumnans. 

dupllcatus. 

longiusculus. 

analis Say. Am. Tr. 2, 108. 

nee Kb. N. Z. dl. 
Sayi Aube, 699. 
DiNEUTES. 

assimilis Aube, 1 78. 

Gyr. aniericanus S. Am. Tr. 2, 107. 

C}jclinu»^assim. Kb. N. Z. 78. 
discolor Aube, 778. 

Cyclous labratusMels.P. Ac. 2, 29. 
Heterocerus Fabr. 

ventralis Mels. P. Ac. 2, 98. 
undatiis Mels. ibid. 2, 98. 
angulatus. 
apicalis. 



cinctus. 
Elmis Latr. 

bivittatus Dej. Cat. 
LiMNius Illiger. 

^' fastiditus. 
Hydrochus Germ. 

scabratus Muls. An. Lugd 1,373. 
gibbosus Mels. P. Ac. 2, 99. 

rufipes Mels. ibid. 100. 
Hydr^ena Kug. 

tenuis. 
OcHTiiEBius Leach. 

^ cribricollis. 

^' nitidus. 
Helophorus Fabr. 

^° oblongus. 

" lacustris. 

lineatus Say. J. Ac. 3, 200. 

apicalis. 

nitidus. 



" L. fastiditus. — Fusco-scneus, thorace conA'exo, pubescente, minus dense punctato, 
lateribus rectis, marginatis, basi media producto, emarginatoque, angulis posticis acutis, 
utrinque ad basin impresso ; ely tris striato-punctatis, interstitiis subtiliter punctulatis 
breviter flavo-pubescentibus vitta utrinque la;te flava ad humerum paulo dilatata. Long. 
•11. Maple Island. 

^8 0. cribricollis. — ^Eneo-testaceus margine pedibusque pallidioribus, thorace lateribus 
rotundato basi bisinuato, grosse punctato, canaliculato, lineaque arcuata utrinque ante 
medium ; elytris punctato-striatis. Long. '08. Eagle Harbor. 

*9 O. nitidus. — iEneo-niger, pernitidus, thorace lateribus rectis basi utrinque obliqua, 
angulis anticis productis apice rotundatis, profunde canaliculato, antice utrinque bifo- 
veato fovea externa majore, basi utrinque fovea parva, et ad angulos posticos fovea 
magna exarata, elytris punctis discretis majusculis seriatim positis ; antennis pedi- 
busque testaceis. Long. '07. Eagle Harbor. 

60 H. oblongus. — Elongatus, parallelus, testaceus capite obscure viridi, subtiliter 
punctato, thorace lateribus rectis basi utrinque obliqua, apice fere truncata, obsolete 
punctulato, lineis interinediis fere rectis ; elytris apice rotundato-subtruncatis, profunde 
crenato-striatis, gutta parva nigra versus medium utrinque ornatis. Long. -23. Eagle 
Harbor. 

6' H. lacustris. — Oblongus, supra obscure testaceus, capite viridi thoraceque granulis 
minus elevatis dense adspersis, hoc lateribus vis rotundatis, basi utrinque sinuato, 
angulis anticis prominulis, lineis 5 fortiter impressis, intermediis valde curvatis, elytris 
pone medium vix oblique attenuatis fortiter crenato striatis, interstitiis 5 '" 7 mo q^g 
dorso paulo acutis ; utrinque versus medium guttis 1 vel 2 fuscis signatis. Long. •23. 
Eagle Harbor. 

15 



218 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



afiinis. 

^ scaber. 
Htdrophilus Fabr. 

glaber Hbst. Col. 7, 298. 

lateralis P. £/. 1, 251. 

nimbatus Say. J. Ac. 3, 203. 

obtusatus Say. J. Ac. 3, 202. 
Laccobius Leach. Er. 

punctatus Mels. P. Ac. 2, 100. 
Hydrobius Leach. 

('§ Philhydrus Sol.) 

lacustris. 

perplexus. 

nebulosus. 

Hydrophilus neb. Say. Exp. 2, 27 7. 
Cycloxotum Dej. Muls. 

subcupreum. 

Hydrophilus subc. Say. J. Ac. 5, 
189. 
Cercyon Leach. 

mundum Mels. P. Ac. 2, 102. 

ambiguum. 

dubiuni. 

vagans (^Crytopleurum Muls.) 
Necrophorus Linne. 

hebes Kb. N. Z. 97. 



orbicollis Say. 

var. Hallii Kb. N. Z. 98. 
i-maculatus Dej. Cat. 
pygmsBUS Kb. N. Z. 98. 
velutinus Fabr. El. 1, tSi. 
SiLPHA Linne'. 
americana Linne' S. Nat. 2, 570. 
var. ? Oiceoptoma affine Kb. N. Z. 
103. 
insequalis F. El. i, 340. 
lapponica Hbst. Fabr. El. 1, 338. 
caudata Say. J. Ac. 3, 192. 
Catops Fabr. 
*^ termiiians. 
Cephennium Midler. 
Meqaloderus Steph. 
•^n.s. 
ScYDM^ENUS Latr. 
subpunctatus. 
pilosicollis. 
Bryaxis Knoch. 
proplnqua. 
longula. 
Falagria Leach. 
dissecta Er. 49„ 

var. erythroptera Mels. P. Ac. 



®* H. scaber. — ^Eneo-niger, capite thoraceque granulis dense scabfosis, hoc basi an- 
gustato, lateribus late excavato, dorsoque foveato, lineis 5 impressis, intermediis sinua- 
tis, elytris pone basin sensim ampliatis, versus apiceni oblique attenuatis, crenato- 
striatis, basi bicarinatis, pone basin oblique impressis, interstitiis pone medium alterna- 
tim tiiberculatis. Long. -IS. 

The third and fifth interstices have each three tubercles, the anterior one being small : 
the seventh has two, and the ninth a very slight elevation. The striee are deeper 
towards the margin than at the suture. 

^ C. terminans. — Ovatus minus convexus, niger opacus, dense pubescens, ruguloso- 
punctatus ; thorace antice angustato, lateribus rotundato, basi utrinque sinuato, angulis 
posticis subacutis, elytris stria suturali valde impressa, pedibus fuscis, antennis apice 
parumincrassatis,apicesummo flavo,basi testaceo. Long. -IS. Pic: under old carrion. 

(J tarsi antici, dilatati ; tarsi intermedii articulo 1 ™o elongato dilatatoque. 

•** This species is the analogue of the European C. minutissimura ; it is no larger 
than a Trichopteryx : I found but a single specimen on St. Joseph's Island, and al- 
though it was safely secured in a bottle, it was not there by the time I reached camp. 
I therefore forbear naming it, merely directing the attention of future explorers to this 
very interesting species. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 



219 



depressa. 
HoMALOTA Afan. Er. 

pressa. 

planata. 

pallipes. 

flavicans. 

pollta Mels. P. Ac. 2, 31. 

attenuata. 

dichroa Er. 107. 

rubricornis. 

dubitans. 

fitricta. 

clavifer. 

lividipennis Er. 129. 
OxYPODA Man. 

gagulata Er. 146. 

turpis Mels. Ms. 

moesta. 
Aleochara Grav. 

rubripennis. 

nitida Grav. Mic. 97; Er. 168. 

molesta. 
Gyroph^ena Man. 

amanda. 

bellula. 

socia Er. 189. 

corruscula Er. 189. 
EuRYUSA Er. 

gemiflava. 
Myll.«na Er. 

terminans. 
CoNURUS Steph. 

crassus Er. 222. 
Tachyporus Grav. 

jocosus Say. Am. Tr. 4, 466. 
arduus Er. 237. 



brunneus Er. Col. March. 1, 395. 
faber Say. I. I. 468. 

punctulatus Mels. P. Ac. 2, 32. 
Tachinus Grav. 

ventriculus Er. 920. 
gibbulus Er. 252. 

luridus Er. 920. 

hybridus. 

puncticollis. 

fimbriatus Grav. Mic. 191 ; Er. 258. 

picipes Er. 257. 

fumipennis Er. 921. 
axillaris Er. 261. 

obscurus. 

con for mis. 
Olisth.erus Dej. Er. 843. 

^ laticeps. 

**nitidus. 
BoLETOBius Leach. 

longiceps. 

obsoletus Er. 922. 

cinctus Er. 278. 

pygmseus Man. Brach. 65 ; Er. 280 ; 
922. 
Mycetoporus Man. 

lucldus. 

americanus Er. 285. 
Othius Leach. 

macrocephalus ? Er. 297. 

Isevis. 
Xantholinos Dahl. 

obsidianus Mels. P. Ac. 2, 34. 
americanus Dej. Cat. 

cephalus Say. Am. Tr. 4, 452. 
consentaneus Er. 326. 

hamatus Say. Am. Tr. 4, 453. 



•6 O. laticeps. — Rufus nitidus, capite nigro postice leviter parcius punctato thorace 
non angustiore, hoc basi leviter angustato, angulis posticis rectis, paulo impressis, elytris 
leviter striatis, abdomine fusco, supra sat dense punctulato. Long. -28. St. Ignace. 

^ 0. nitidus. — Rufus nitidus, capite nigro, postice punctulato thorace sesqui angus- 
tiore, hoc basi vix angustato, angulis posticis rectis paulo impressis, elytris nigris stria- 
tis, abdomine rufo, supra dense minus subtiliter punctato. Long. -22. Eagle Harbor. 



220 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



obscuriis Er. 330. 

var. corvinus Dej. Cat. 
Stapuylinus Lin. 

villosus Grav. Mc. 160 ; Er. 349. 
Philontiius Leach. 

cyanipennis Er. 433. 

aeneus Nord. Symh. 81. Er. 437 ; 928. 
Ilnrrisii Mels. P. Ac. 2, 35. 

melancholicus. 

sparsus. 

promtus Er. 929. 

styjjicus. 

debilis Er. Col. March. 1, 467. 

inconspicuus. 

morulus. 

vapidus. 

lomatus Er. 482. 

censors. 

curtatus. 

brunneus Er. 486. 

lugens. 

aterrimus Er. 492. 

egenus. 

gratus. 
QuKDius Leach. Er. 

obscurus. 

corticalis. 

morio. 

perspicax. 

arboricola. 
OxYPORUS Fair. 

vittatus Grav. Micr. 195 ; Er. 558. 
Lathkobium Grav. 

Zimmcrmani. 

simile. 

concolor. 

nigrum. 

longiusculum Gr. Micr. 181 ; Er. 597. 
LiTiiocHARis Dej. ; Boisd. 

confluens Er. 615. 



SuNius Leach. Er. 

longiusculus Er. 643. 
P.iiDEUUS Grav. 

littorarius Grav. Mon. 142 ; Er 656. 
Stenus Latr. 

Juno Fahr. El. 2, 602 ; Er. 694. 

stygicus Er. 698. 

lugens. 

longicollis. 

planifrons. 

bisulcatus. 

egenus Er. 698. 

simplex. 

terricola. 

strumosus. 

punctatus Er. 744. 
Ev.ESTHETUS Grav. 

americanus Er. 7 AT. 
Bledius Leach. 

ruficornis. 

annularis. 

divisus. 
Platystethus Man. 

americanus Er. 784. 
OxYTELUS Grav. 

misellus. 
Trogophlceus Man. 

planus. 

*' Argus. 

pumilus. 
Ajstthophagus Grav. 

verticalis Say. Am. Tr. 4, 463. 

memnonius. 
Lesteva Latr. 

biguttula. 
AciDOTA Leach. 

subcarinata Er. 863. 

patruelis. 

tenuis. 



^ This species is remarkable for possessing two ocelli : but the structure of the ab- 
domen proves it to belong to the Oxytelini, and in no part of the body does it show 
any difference from Trogophlceus : it and the preceding species belcrtig to the division 
possessing a visible scutellum. 



BEMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 221 

Lathrimjeum Er. Proteinus Latr. 

sordiflum Er. 871. parvulus. 

DEi.iniRUM Er. Megarthrus Kirly. 

seriatum. excisus. 

"Latiirium. Micropeplus ia^r. 

convexicoUe. '" costatus. 

Omalium Grav. Trichopteryx Kirhy. 

longulum. discolor Hald.J. Ac. N. S 1, 108, 

complanatum. aspera HaM. ih. 109. 

protectum. Anisotoma Illiger. 

AxTHOBiuM Leach. " assimilis. 

simplex. '^ indistincta- 

ventrale. " collaris. 

"•dimidiatum Mels. P. Ac. 2, 43. "strigata. 

confusum. 



"8 Mandibuljc edentatfe. Maxillee mala exteriore cornea (intcriore invisa.) Palpi 
maxillares tenues, art. 2ndo 4to que elongatis. Tibiae omnino muticae. Tarsi breves, 
tenues, articulis 4 primis eequalibus, posticis art. 4'osubtus producto, breviter calceato. 

Frons inimpressus, ocellis supra oculos sitis, minus distinctis. Proximus videtur 
Olopbro, at tarsorum structura abhorret. Discedit porro statura longiore, elytrisque 
abdominis segmentura 1 ™""' solum tegentibus. Victus riparius. 

L. convexicolle. — Elongatum nigrum, thorace convexo, latcribus rectis submargina- 
tis, angulis anticis rotundatis, basi cum angulis posticis rotundata, sat dense punctato, 
obsolete canaliculate, ante basin leviter foveato, elytris grossius punctatis sutura leviter 
elevata, abdomine subtilissime alutaceo, ano pedibus antcnnisque rufopiceis. Long. 
•19. Eagle Harbor. 

** Mas abdomine nigro; femina sesqui major, abdomine concolore testaceo. 

'" M. costatus. — Niger thorace celluloso, elytris versus apicem transversim impressis, 
tricostatis interstitio externo punctulato, abdomine late marginato, segmentis .3 primia 
utrinque cannula brcvi instructis, \™° ad basin subtiliter canaliculato. Long. | lin. 

The feet are piceous: seems allied to M. tesserula Curtis. Er. 913. 

■" A. assimilis. — Ovalis nigro -picca, subtiliter dense punctata, thorace antice angusta- 
to, lateribus rotundato, basi utrinque punctis seriatim transversim positis, elytris punc- 
tato-striatis, interstitiis alternatim punctis majusculis uniseriatim positis. Long. 'IG. 
Eagle Harbor. 

^ Tibiis posticis elongatis curvatis. 

7* A. indistincta. — Fere hemispherica, piceo-rufa, obsolete sparsim punctulata, tho- 
race lateribus minus rotundato, basi subsinu.ata, punctis utrinque notata, elytris punc- 
tato-striata, interstitiis alternatim punctis 3 vel 4 majusculis. Long. -11. 

" A. collaris. — Ovalis, convexa, rufo-testacea, antennis capite thoraceque piceis, hoo 
lateribus valde rotundato, dense punctato, basi truncata punctis majoribus utrinque 
notata ; elytris profunde punctato-striatis, interstitiis vix subtilissime punctulatis, alter- 
natim punctis -5 vel 6 majusculis. Long. •12. E.-igle Harbor. 
$ tibiis posticis curvatis. 

'■* A. strigata. — Hemispherica rufa, thorace lateribus rotundato, basi truncato, laevia- 
simo, elytris tenuiter punctato-striatis, interstitiis transversim subtiliter rugulosis. Long. 
•OS. 



222 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Cyrtusa Er. truncatus. 

'^ globosa. Nitidala truncata Rand. 5. /. 2, 1 8. 

'" Sternuchus. tantillus. 

gibbulus. Carpophilus Leach. 

Agathidium Illiger. niger Er. Germ. Z. 4, 263, 

" ruficorne. Cercus niger Say. J. Ac. 3, 195. 

" revolvens. Epur^a Er. 

Phalacrus Payk. flavicans. 

" diffbniils. Ticina. 

Olibrus Er. parvula. 

* aplcalis. longula. 

Brachypteru3 Kugellan. parallela. 

urticae Kug. Er. Ins. Germ. 3, 132. retracta. 

Colastus Er. rufa Er. Germ. Z. 4, 273. 

semitectus Er. Germ. Z. 4, 243. Nitid. rufa Say. J. Ac. 5, 180. 

^* C. globosa. — Hemispherica. nigro-picea, nitida, thorace subtiliter dense punctulato 
basi truncato, angulis posticis vix rotundatis, margine diaphano : elytris dense punctu- 
latis, punctisque vix majoribus seriatim positis, antennarum basi, tarsis tibiisque piceis, 
his anticis non dilatatis. Long. -13. 

'6 Sternuchus. Antennse capillares, articulo 1™" crassiore majore ; 3 ultimis parum 
dilatatis, omnibus setis 2 longis apicalibus. Metathorax subtus permagnus, promi- 
nens, planus, antice declivus, pedibus intermediis in declivitate profunde sitis, approxi- 
matis. Coxaj antics, exsertse, conicie, postiea; permagnaj laminatag, abdominis partem 
anteriorem obtegentes. Abdomen parvum, 5-articulatura, (articulis 2 primis consoli- 
datis ?) Tarsi filiformes consolidati, unguibus simplicibus. 

Head large, semicircularly rounded anteriorly, acutely angulated on the sides behind, 
labrum very short, almost concealed by the margin of the clypeus. Thorax very short, 
not emarginate in front, base rounded, angles none. Elytra covering the abdomen, 
declivous, scarcely convex behind. Palpi filiform. I should have considered this insect 
a Cybocephalus, but for the filiform tarsi. The structure of the antennae ditfers from 
Oyllidium, but I am by no means certain that I have placed it in a proper position : it 
seems to have some relation to Clambus, but the great size of the metasternura and 
posterior coxa; prevents a complete examination of the lower surface. 

S. gibbulus. Globatilis, gibbus, niger Isevissimus, antennis ore pedibusque flavis. 
Long. J lin. 

''"' A. ruficorne. Globatile supra nigrum, elytris vix punctulatis, stria suturali postice 
profunda, antennis pedibusque rufis, abdomine sa?pius ferrugineo. Long. -08. Hab. 
ubique. 

'8 A. revolvens. — Globatile at minus convexura, nigrum, elytris dense subtiliter punc- 
tatis, obsoletissime striatis, stria suturali, profunda. Long. •14. 

'3 P. difformis. — Hemisphericus, rufescenti-piceus, thorace vix obsolete punctulato, 
lateribus subrectis, basi cum angulis posticis rotundata, elytris sat dense punctulatis, 
8tria suturali profunda. Long. 08. 

$ Mandibula sinistra cornu erecto curvato longitudine caput aequante. 

*" O. apicalis. — Breviter ovalis, postice vix angustatus, convexus, piceus nitidus, 
thorace basi truncato, elytris impunctatis, stria suturali impressa, aliisque 1 vel 2 obso- 
letissimis, apice corporeque subtus rufo, antennis pedibusque flavis. Long. 'OS. 

N. B. The maxillary palpi have the last joint somewhat securiform. * 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 



223 



Phenolia Er. 

grossa Er. Z. 4, 300. 

Nitid. grossa Fabr. El. 1, 347. 
Omosita Er. 

colon Er. Germ. Z. 4, 299. 
Meligethes Leach. 

obsoleta. 
Amphicrossus Er. 
^ concolor. 

Ips Fabr. 
sepulchralis Rand. B. J. 2, 19. 

Dejeanii Kb. N. Z. 107. 
filiformis. 
bipunctatus. 
Peltis Geoff. 

fraterna Rand. B. J. 2, 17. 

ferru(j'meaX Kb. N. Z. 104. 
septentrionalis Rand. 1. 1. 1 7. 
Thymalus Latr. 

fulgidus Er. Z. 5, 458. 
Cicones Curtis. 
fuliginosus. 

Synchitaful. Mels. P. ^c. 2, 111. 
Cerylon Latr. 
affine. 
imicolor. 

Latridius uni. Zieg. P. Ac. 2, 270. 
Cucujus Fabr. 
clavipes. 



L^EMOPHLffiUS Dej. Er. 

biguttatus. 

Cucujus biff. Say. J. Ac. 5, 26 7. 
Dendrophagus Fabr. 

^" glaber. 
Brontes Fabr. 

dahius Fabr. El. 2,97. 
SiLVANUS Latr. 

^ planus. 
Paratenetus Spin. 

^ fuscus. 
Paramecosoma Curtis. 

^ deuticulatum. 

inconspicuum. 
Atomaria Kb. 

similis. 

longula. 

cingulata. 
CoRTiCARiA Marsham. 

serricollis. 

denriculata Kb. N. Z. 110. 

similis. 

affinis. 

convexa. 

reticulata. 

cavicoHis Man. Germ. Z. 5, 50. 
Lathridius Illiger. 

reflexus. 



SI A. concolor. — Ellipticus convexus, ferrugineus, punctatus, pubescens, thorace 
tenuitermarginato, lateribus modice rotundatis. Long. "15. Pic. 

*2 D. glaber. — Elongatus piceus, glaber, capite thoraceque punctatis, hoc longitu- 
dinaliter biimpresso, lateribus sinuate, elytris punctato-striatis, margine cum antennis 
pedibusque rufo. Long. •27. 

s' S. planus. — Valde depressus, rufus, capite thoraceque dense punctatis, hoc angulis 
posticis, late emarginatis, denteque yix conspicuo ante medium armato, angulis anticis 
rotundatis, elytris subtilissime punctulatis pubescentibus, stria suturali tenui impressa. 
Long. -12. 

8-* P. fuscus. — Oblongo-ovatus, antice angustatus, convexus, ferrugineo-fuscus, gros- 
sius punctatus, sparse pubescens, thorace lateribus subangulatis, pone medium 4-den- 
tatis, ante medium crenatis, basi truncata elytris thorace latioribus sutura nigra. Long. 
•12. 

85 P. denticulatum. — Elongato-oblongum, ferrugineum, punctatum minus subtiliter 
flavo-pubescens, thorace transverse lateribus paulo rotundatis crenulatis, basi media 
marginata, utrinque impressa, elytris stria suturali parum profunda. Long. "08. 



224 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Mycetophagus Fahr. americanus Payh. 31. 

pictus. subrotundus Say. J. Ac. 5, 39. 

Triphyllus Latr. Paromalus Er. 

didesmus. [261. bistriatus Er. Jahr. 

Mycetophagus did. Say. J. Ac. 5, Sapuinus Leach. 

Dermkstes Lin. pensylvanlcus Er. 1 84. 

murinus Lin. Er. Ins. Germ. 3, 429. assimllis Er. 184. 

Byrrhus Linne. distinguendus. 

^ americanus. proximus. 

cyclophorus Kb. N. Z. 11 7. mancus. 

picipes Kb. N. Z. 116. Hister m. Say. J.Ac. 15, 41. 

varius Fabr. El. 1, 105. fraternus Lee. B. J. 5, 77. 

^ eximius. Hister f. Say. J. Ac. 5, 40. 

^tesselatus. Platycerus Latr. 

Syncalypta Dillwyn. ^ depressus. 

*' echinata. quercus Schon. 

Platysoma Leach. PI. securidens Say. J. Ac. 3, 249. 

depressum Er. Jahr. 111. Lucanus querc. Weber Obs. 1, 85. 

Hister Lin. Geotrupes Latr. 

abbreviatus Fabr. El. 1, 89. mlarophagus Say. J. Ac. 3, 211. 

depurator Say. J. Ac. 5, 33. 

86 B. americanus. — Oblongo-ovatus, antice acutus, convexus, niger dense breviter 
fusco-pubescens, thorace nigro cinoreoque variegata, elytris sutura vittisque 4 nigris, 
guttis albis intcrruptis, qua? spatium transversum antice dentatum, postice latcribus 
obliquis, medio recte truncatum, formant ; guttisque nonnuUis aliis versus apiccm ob- 
lique retrorsum positis ; tenuiter striatis. Long. -4. Twice the size of B. cyclophorus ; 
found from Niagara to Lake Superior. 

8^ B. eximius. — Oblongus antice acutus, lateribus parallelus, niger fusco-pubescens, 
nigro flavoque variegatus ; thorace nigro, cinereo flavoque variegato, elytris striatis, 
sutura vittisque 4 nigris, his guttis interruptis, lineam ante medium transversara den- 
tatam, figuram semicircularem antice dentatam, lineamque versus marginem antror- 
sum obliquam formantibus, his omnibus postice flavo tomentosis. Long. -2. Pic. 
The middle part of the anterior margin of the semicircular figure forms a broad com- 
mon cinereous spot. 

88 B. tesselatus. — Elongatulus, utrinque subacutus, virescente-niger nigro-pubescens, 
elytris striatis cinereo tesselatis, subtus niger, pedibus piceis. Long. -12. Pic. 

8' S. echinata. — Breviter ovata, utrinque attenuata, nigra parce cinereo-pubescens, 
setis erectis clavatis nigris adspersa, in elytra longioribus uniseriatim in striatum in- 
terstitiis positis ; striis tenuibus, marginal! sola profunda. Long. | lin. Eagle Har- 
bor. 

90 P. depressus. — Depressus, niger vix seneus, thorace lateribus pone medium angula- 
to, angulis posticis obtusis minirae rotundatis, elytris profundius punctatis, striatisque. 
Long. -62. Twice the size of P. quercus, the elytral stria are alternately a little ap- 
proximated ; the mandibles of the $ are much dilated at the apex, but less curved than 
in P. quercus. A very small specimen has the sides of the thorax behind the angle 
emarginate, so that the basal angles become still more prominent and scarcely obtuse. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 225 

Aphodius III. curtus Hd. I I. 105. 

'^ hyperboreus. Oxyomus ia<r. 

omissus. {nee Say. strigatus. ^ 

concavus Hd. J. Ac. N. S. 1, 103, Aph. strigatus Say. J. Ac. 3, 212. 

pinguis Hd. I. c. 103. Rhyssemus Muls. 

■^ angularis. °* cribrosus. 

^ consentaneus. J*]gialia Encycl. 

4-tuberculatus Fdbr. ^' lacustris. 

8' A. hyperboreus. — Oblongus rufo-piceus nitidus, capite nigro, thorace lateribus 
punctato, disco Isevissimo, angulis posticis obtusis rotundatis, basi vix marginata 
utrinque obliqua, nigro lateribus obsolete rufis, elytris crenato-striatis, interstitiis fere 
planis, la?vissimis. Long. -3. Pic. The clypeus is smooth, with only a few points at 
the side, the margin reflexed, and slightly emarginate. Belongs to Erichson's di- 
vision D, as well as the three following species. It is very similar to A. omissus, but dis- 
tinguished (apart from color) by the smooth clypeus and impunctured elytra. I have 
changed the name of the next species, as it cannot be Mr. Say's A. concavus : that author 
makes no mention of the large scutellum, which he would not have failed to observe in. 
comparison with other species. I know not how Mr. Haldeman omitted this character 
which would serve at once to distinguish the species in question, and A. pinguis from all 
the other American species seen by him. 

9" A. angularis. — Oblongus niger nitidus supra undique sparse subtiliter punctulatus, 
thorace lateribus rotundato, angulis posticis obtusis non rotundatis, basi vix marginata, 
utrinque oblique vix sinuata, lateribus punctatis, disco parce punctato, elytris profundius 
crenato-striatis. Long. -26. Pic. Variat elytris piceis, pedibus rufo-piceis. 

Agrees with A. pinguis in being covered with a fine punctuation ; the clypeus is more 
broadly emarginate, and the posterior angles of the thorax not at all rounded ; the basal 
margin of the thorax is interrupted and indistinct. The $ has the thorax a little 
wider than the elytra. Belongs also to Erichson's division D. 

93 A. consentaneus. — Elongatus, rufo-testaceus, elytris pallidioribus, capite thora- 
ceque subtiliter sat dense punctatis, hoc lateribus parum rotundato angulis posticis ob- 
tusis valde rotundatis, basi tenuiter marginata, elytris thorace non latioribus profunde 
crenato-striatis. Long. "2. 

Clypeus margined, scarcely emarginate, frontal suture straight : the punctures of the 
thorax are intermixed with a few very minute points. Belongs to division E, of Erich- 
son. 

3-1 R. cribrosus. — Piceus, opacus, thorace lateribus rectis, angulis posticis late emar- 
ginatis, basi vix rotundata, grosse confertim cribrato, canaliculate, elytris antice suban- 
gustatis, basi emarginatis, acute 10-costatis, sulcis uniseriatim leviter punctatis. Long. 
•16. 

Head convex, punctured, clypeus scarcely margined, oblique each side. I should 
refer this species to Euparia, were not the posterior tibiee destitute of the rows of bris- 
tles, and the external spur which distinguish that genus ; they have two scarcely dis- 
cernible rudiments of teeth on the outer edge. The podex is entirely concealed by the 
elytra. 

8* ^. lacustris. — Oblonga, convexa, postice subdilatata, nigra nitida, thorace trans- 
verso, antice angustato, basi marginata, utrinque oblique subsinuata, angulis posticis 
rotundatis, lateribus marginatis, anticeque impressis, sat dense grossius punctato, 
elytris valde crenato-striatis, interstitiis convexis la^vibus. Long. 'IS. 

Head convex, rough anteriorly with elevated granules, clypeus finely margined, widely 
emarginate. There are also two species found on the Atlantic coast. 



226 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Lachnosterna Hope. Dichelonycha Har. Kb. 

* quercina. hexagona. 

Mel. querc. Kn. N.Beit. 74. Melol.hex. Germ. Ins. Nov. 124. 

*" anxius. elongata Harris. 

* consirnllis. Melolontha elongata F. El. 2, 174. 
**futilis. virescens Kb. N. Z. 134. 

Serica M'Leay. testacea Kb. N. Z. 135. 

vespertina Dej. Cat. Backii Kb. N. Z. 134. 

Mel. vespertina Say. J. Ac. 3, 244. Osmoderma Lepell. 

^tristis. scabrum. Gory ^' P. Cet. tab. S,Jig. 2. 

DiPLOTAXis il«?%. S Gymnodusfoveatus Kb. N.Z. 14:0. 

tristis Kb. N. Z. 130. ? ■ rugosus Kb. N. Z. 140. 

8^ L. quercina. — Castanea nitida, supra glabra, antennis pedibusque testaceis, thorace 
minus subtiliter punctato, antice angustato, lateribus parum dilatatis, angulis posticis 
rectis, basi media late minus extensa, elytris obsolete 3-costatis sat dense punctatis 
rugosisque, umbone humerali minus elevata, angulo suturali obtuso, pygidio parce 
punctato. Long. -93. 

,J antennarum clava parte reliqua longiore, corpore cylindrico. 

9 antennarum clava brevi, corpore postice leviter dilatato. 

This is one of a group of very closely allied species, which I have divided according 
to the form and punctuation of the thorax, and the form of the sutural angle of the 
elytra. It is the common species everywhere, and is probably Mel. quercina Knoch. 

^'' L. anxia. — Nigro-castanea nitida, supra glabra, antennis pedibusque rufo-testaceis, 
thorace sat dense distinctius punctato, antice angustato, lateribus parum dilatatis, 
angulis posticis rectis, basi media late minus extensa, elytris leviter 3-costatis distinct- 
ius sat dense punctatis, umbone humerali prominulo, angulo suturali obtuso, pygidio 
parce punctato, basi longitudinaliter rugoso. Long. "92. 

9 Corpore postice modice dilatato. More dilated behind than the preceding, with 
larger punctures on the thorax and elytra. 

^ L.consimilis. —Postice nondilatata, castanea, nitida supra glabra, antennis pedibusque 
testaceis thorace subtilius parce punctato, antice angustato, lateribus modice dilatatis, 
angulis posticis rectis, basi media late extensa, elytris dense subtiliter punctatis rugos- 
isque, angulo suturali valde obtuso, pygidio parce punctato, basisubruguloso. Long. '93. 

(J clava antennarum parte reliqua vix longiore. 

Differs from the large eastern species (Mel. brunnea Kn.) in having the thorax less 
dilated on the sides, the posterior angles not acute, and the sutural angle of the elytra 
very obtuse. 

^* L. futilis. — Dilute castanea supra glabra nitida, antennis testaceis, thorace sat 
dense minus subtiliter punctato, latitudine triplo breviore, antice angustato, lateribus 
modice dilatato, angulis posticis obtusis, basi late rotundato, elytris sat dense punctatis 
sub umbone humerali modice elevata late impressis, angulo suturali subobtuso, pygidio 
punctato, abdomine densius subtiliter punctulato. Long. "6. 

1 S. tristis. — Oblongus convexus, piceus punctatus, capite pone oculos l:cvi, thorace 
latitudine duplo breviore, antice angustato, lateribus ante medium rotundatis, angu- 
lis posticis rectis paulo rotundatis, basi bisinuata, margine tenui basali lacvi : elytris 
obsolete cyaneo micantibus, lateribus parallelis, leviter sulcatis, in sulcis punctatis, 
interstitiis Iffivibus, pedibus rufo-piceis, antennis testaceis 9-articulatis. Long. -32. Cly- 
peus flat, densely punctured, margin scarcely elevated, broadly emarginate, marked 
anteriorly with a fine transverse line. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 



227 



DiCERCA Escll. 

(livaricata. 

Stenur'is divaricata Kb. N. Z. 154. 

Buprestis dw."? Say. J. Ac. 3, 163. 

Dicerca duhia Mels. P. Ac. 2, 142. 
aurichalcea Mels. P. Ac. 2, 142. 

parumpunctata Mels, ibid. 
tenebrosa. 

Stenurls teneb. Kb. N. Z. 155. 
lacustris. 
lugubris. 
bifoveata. 
Ancylocheira Tlsch. 
lineata T>ej. Cat. 

Buprestis lineata Fabr. El. 2, 192. 
Niittalli. 

consularis Dej. Cat. 

Anoplis Nultalli Kb. N. Z. 152. 
maculiventris. 

Blip, maculiv. Say. Exp. 2. 

Bup. 6-notata Lap. Bup. pi. 32. 

Anoplis rusticorum Kb. N. Z. 151. 
striata Dej. Cat. 

Blip, striata Fabr. EL 2, 192. 
Pblenops Esch. 
assimilis. 
' longlpes. 

Bujy. longipes Say. J. Ac. 3, 164. 
Chrysobothris Esch. 
dentipes. 

Buprestis den. Germ. Ins. Nov. 38. 
femorata Dej. Cat. 

Bup. femorata F. El. 2, 208. 
scabripennis Lap. Bup.pl. 9, Jig. 71. 

Odontomus trinervia Kb. N. Z. 157. 
Agrilus Meg. 
lacustris. 
advena. 
Fornax Lap. 
epretus. 



Cratoxtchus Dej. 

puncticollis. 

recticollis. 

decumanus Er. Germ. Z. 3, 104. 

communis Er. ibid. 3, 102. 
Adelocera Lair. 

^ brevicornis. 
LiMONIUS Escll. 

confusus Z)ey. Cat. 

quercinus Dej. Cat. 

Elater quer. Say. An. Lye. 1, 262. 
Campylus Fisch. 

denticornis Kb. N. Z. 145. 
flavlnasus Mels. P. Ac. 2, 219. 

productus ? Rand. B. J. 2, 8. 
Cardiophorus Esch. 

vagus. 
Cryptohypnus Esch. 

insignis. 

silaceipes Germ. Z. 5, 139. 

lacustris. 

tumescens. 

simplex. 

misellus. 

dorsalis Germ. 5, 147. 

renifer. 
Ampedus Meg. 

lugubris Germ. 5, 165. 

semicinctus. 
El. semicinctus Rand. B. J. 2, 10. 

apicalis. 

El. apicatus Say. Am. Tr. 4. 
Amp. melanopygus Germ. 5, 161. 

phoenicopterus Germ. 5, 161. 

luctuosus. 

ferripes. 

sparsus. 

lutosus. 
Pristilophus Latr. 

fusiformis. 



* Kirby gives this as identical with the European P. appendiculata : the characters 
in this group are rather obscure, and I prefer continuing it as distinct until I have an 
opportunity for comparison. 

3 This species is very near to A. conspersa, (Germ. Zeit. 2,257-) 



228 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



CORYMBITES Lolr. 

anchorage. 

Ctenicerus Kendalli Kb. N. Z. 149. 

Elater anchorago Eand. B. J. 2, 5. 
resplendens Germ. Z. 4, 60. 

Ludius resp. Esch. Thon. Arch. 
2,34. 

Elater cerarius Rand. B. J. 2, 7. 
cylindriformis Germ. 4, 64. 
* mirificus. 
DlACANTHUS Latr. 
medianus Germ. 4, 71. 
submetallicus Germ. 4, 72. 
aeneolus. 
bicinctus. 

Ludius hlc. Dej. Cat. 
curiatus. 

El. curiatus Say. 

Ludius propola Dej. Cat. 
appropinquans. 

Elater appro. Eand. B. J. 2, 5. 

El. ceripennis Kb. N. Z.150. 
splendens Zieg. P. Ac. 2, 44. 
furcifer. 
triundulatus. 

Elater 3-und. Rand. B. J. 2, 12. 
spinosus. 
dubius. 
suturellus. 
DoLonus Meg. 
fucosus. 
indentatus. 
mixtus. 
incongruus. 
stabilis. 



umbraticus Dej. Cat. 
pauperatus Dej. Cat. 
filiformis. 
pulcher. 
obesulus. 
Cyphon Fair. 
obscura Guerin. Mon. 4. 
variabilis Guerin. ib. 
Pyractomena Dej. 
borealis. 

Lanipyris bar. Rand. B. J. 2, 16. 
falsa. 
Pygolampis Dej. 
ardens. 
taedifer. 
Ellychnia Dej. 
neglecta Dej. 
corrusca Dej. 

Lamp, corrusca Fabr. El. 2, 100. 
lacustris. 
CjENia Nm. 

dimidiata Lee. J. Ac. N. S.l, 76. 
Celetes Nm. 
mystacina Lee. ib. 77. 
tabida Lee. ib. 
Eros Nm. 

coccinatus Zee. I. I. 77. 
modestus Lee. 80. 
aeger Lee. 80. 
socius Lee. 81. 

PODABRUS Fisch. 

diadema Dej. 

Canth.diad. Fabr. El. 1, 298. 
* modestus. 

Canih. mod. Say. J. Ac. 3, 179. 



* C. mirificus. — Niger, thorace transverso antice augustato, lateribus rectis, angulis 
posticis productis carinatis, rufo, macula magna rotundata nigra fere ad apiccm exten - 
dente, densius subtiliter punctato, elytris flavis, sutura usque ad dodrantem, macula 
humerali, lineaque submarginali a medio postice tendente nigris ; tenuiter striatis in- 
terstitiis punctatis, tibiis tarsisque testaceis, illis apice fuscis. Long. •41. 

The prosternal spine is more deflexed than in any other species I have yet seen. 

^ P. modestus. — Niger tenuiter pubescens, capita antice flavo, postice dense punc- 
tato, thorace subtransverso, lateribus rotundato, obsolete punctato. postice canalicul- 
ato margine fiavo, angulis posticis rectis, elytris scabris, sutura margine antennis pal- 
pisque basi flavis. Long. "io. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 229 

•rugosulus. Telephorus Geof. 

' punctatus. bilineatus. 

* marginellus. Cantliaris hilin. Say. J. Ac. 3, 182. 

Ijevicollis. Curtisii Kb. N. Z. 247. 

Malthacus Icevi. Kb. N. Z. 248. " nigrita. 

•puberulus. scitula. 

^"curtus. Cantharis sc. Say. J. Ac. 5, 169. 

The feet are either yellow or fuscous, the S^d and d''^ joints of antennae equal, and 
each § the length of the 4th ; claws with a large tooth. 

^ P. rugosulus. — Niger tenuiter pubescens, capite antice flavo, (clypeo apice fusco) 
postice dense punctato, thorace subtransverso, apice angustato, basi truncato, antice 
transversim impresso, canaliculato, punctato, lateribus flavis ; elytris dense seabris, 
lineolis 3 obsoletis ; coxis, antennaruin articulo 1'"°, palporum basi pedibusque anticis 
flavis. Long. -32. 

The Sri joint of the antennae is longer than the 2od, but shorter than the 4t'». The 
anterior thighs are commonly dusky beneath, sometimes all the feet are black : the claws 
are bifid. 

' P. punctatus. — Niger densius cinereo-pubescens, capite antice obscure rufo, pos- 
tice dense punctato, thorace quadrato, lateribus versus basin sinuatis, angulis posticis 
prominulis, rufo, dense punctato, disco utrinque pone medium elevato, elytris minute 
seabris, lateribus margine antice pallido. Long. '28. 

The 2n<l joint of the antennas is fthe length of the 3'^^, which is equal to the 4'*' ; 
the palpi are longer than in the preceding : claws with a broad tooth. 

8 P. marginellus. — Niger, cinereo-pubescens, mandibulis, antennarum articulis 2, 
palpisque testaceis, capite postice dense punctato, thorace quadrato, lateribus fere rec- 
tis anguste testaceis angulis posticis prominulis, minus dense punctato, disco utrinque 
modice elevato, elytris, subtiliter seabris, sutura margineque tenui pallidis. Long. "Bl. 
Like the last in form ; the palpi are shorter and more dilated, the thorax less punc- 
tured, the 3'''l joint of the antennae is but little longer than the 2'"l. 

* P. puberulus. — Ater, undique subtiliter cinereo-pubescens, thorace quadrato, angulis 
posticis prominulis, late canaliculato, disco subtiliter alutaceo utrinque pone medium 
elevato, hcvique, elytris subtilissime seabris, pedibus antennisque fuscis basi testaceis, 
his articulis ajqualibus. Long. "25. 

Like Icevicollis, but the thorax is pubescent. The palpi are filiform, claws with a broad 
tooth. 

'<* P. curtus. — Latiusculus niger subtiliter pubescens, thorace brevissimo, utrinque 
truncato, lateribus obliquis rectis, Isevi, lacte flavo apice nigra ; elytris subtilissime punc- 
tatis, abdominis segmento singulo testaceo-marginato, antennarum basi mandibulisque 
testaceis. Long. "l?. 

The eyes are scarcely prominent, the 3^^ and 4"i joints of the antennae are equal, 
each being twice the length of the 2nd ; claws dilated at the base. 

11 T. nigrita. — Niger, undique cinereo-pubescens, thorace subquadrato, latitudine 
sesqui breviore, antice vix angustato, undique marginato, angulis posticis vix rotunda- 
tis, disco laevi, utrinque pone medium modice elevato, elytris distinctius punctatis, 
margine antice testaceo. Long. -22. 

The 3''<i and 4* joints of the antennae are equal, each twice as long as the 2""!; 
claws with a tooth : palpi moderately dilated. Varies with the mouth, base of an- 
tennae, margin of thorax and anterior feet testaceous. 



230 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

'-nigriceps. Hydnoc era iVm. 

SiLis Mccj. difficilis Lee. An. Lye. 5, 27. 

^•' longicornis. Xyletinus Latr. 

" difficilis. .' fucatus Dej. Cat. 

Malthinus Latr. Dorcatoma Fabr. 

fragilis. ocellatum Say Exp. 2, 273. 

parvulus. Anobium Fabr. 

niger. foveatumiv J. iV". Z. 190. 

CoLLors Er. errans Mels. P. Ac. 2, 309. 

tricolor Er. Monog. 57. Ochina Zieg. 

Malachius trie. Say. J. Ac. 3, 182. nigra Mels. P. Ac. 2, 308. 

Clerus Fabr. Klug. Anthicus Fabr. 

undatulus Say. B. J. 1, 163. 4-guttatus Hald. P. Ac. 1, 304. 

nubilus KL Mon. CI. 386. ^^ terminalis. 
Thanasimus abdominalis Kb. 244. ^* difficilis. 

thoracicus 01. 4, 18, pi. 2, 22. " scabriceps. 

'* T. nigriceps. — Pallidus, sparse longius cinereo-pubescens, capite postice nigro, 
thorace latitudinevix breviore, subquadrato, margine uudique elevato, disco modice ele- 
vate, medio l3.te impresso, elytris distinctius punctatis, medio leviter infuscatis. Long. 
•17. 

The Srd and 4'^ joints of the antennae are equal, each being one third longer than 
2nd ; palpi a little dilated, postpectus fuscous ; claws bifid. 

13 S. longicornis. — Nigra, sparse pubescens, thorace latitudine triplo breviore, Isete 
flavo, margine antice posticeque nigro elevato, angulis posticis acute incisis, Icevi ; ely- 
tris minus subtiliter punctatis niandibulis flavis. Long. -2. 

The antennaj are very long; the 2nd joint very short and the 3"^ equal to the 4'*»; 
the lateral margin of thorax is very narrow. 

'* S. difficilis. — Nigra, cinereo-pubescens, thorace latitudine triplo breviore, antice 
angustato, lajte rufo. margine nigro, antice posticeque elevato, angulis posticis acute 
inCisis, vix subtilissme punctulato, elytris punctatis, mandibulis flavis. Long. -2. 

Lake Superior and Sta. Fe, more densely pubescent than the former, with broad 
lateral margin to the thorax ; the antennae longer than the body, 3r<i joint hardly equal 
to the 4"i. 

'^A. terminalis. — Elongatus subdepressus dense punctatus breviter pubescens; 
capite nigro, linea angusta Itevi, thorace latitudine longiore, rufo, basi subangustato 
marginatoque, elytris parallelis fuscis basi late indeterminate testaceis, maculaque ro- 
tundata ad trientem secundum testacea ; subtus niger, pedibus antennisque testaceis. 
Long. '10. Lake Superior and New York. 

'^ A. difficilis. — Elongatus fuscus, albido pubescens, capite thoraceque rufo-testaceis 
illo disperse punctato, spatio indistincto locvi, hoc capite vix angustiore, campanulato, 
antice rotundato, pone medium angustato, versus basin cylindrico, dense minus sub- 
tiliter punctato, basi marginata, elytris elongatis parallelis, minus subtiliter punctatis, 
cum antennis pedibusque testaceis. Long. •!. 

Variat, fascia fusca transversa ad elytrorum medium. 

>'' A. scabriceps. — Elongatus niger densius albido pubescens capite thoraceque con- 
fertissime rugoso-punctatis, hoc capite vix angustiore, campanulato, antice rotundato, 
pone medium angustato, basi cylindrico marginatoque, elytris punctatis, apice obsolete 
rufescente, antennis piceo-testaceis. Long. •!. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 231 

" granulans. Mordella Fabr. 

"pallens. atrata Mels. P. Ac. 2, 313. 

SCHizoTUS N^m. biguttula. 

cervicalis Nm. Ent. Mag. 5, 374. *" pectoralis. 

PoGONOCERUs Fisch. " Anaspis Latr. 

concolor Nm. I. c. 5, 375. nigra. [1, 99. 

Pedilus Fisch. Hallomenus nig. Hd. J. Ac. N. S. 

CoRPHi-RA Say. B. J. 1, 189. ventralis Mels. P. Ac. 2, 312. 

lugubris. ~ filiformls. 

imus Nm. I. c. 375. flavipennis Hd. 1. 1. 100. 
Anthicus lug. Say. J. Ac. 5, 246. 

Variat ; a elytrorum basi rufescente ; antennis pedibus elytrisque testaceis, hoc fas- 
cia lata ad medium fusca ; capite thoraceque fuscis : y capite thoraceque testaceis, ely- 
tris fascia indistincta. 

A very variable species, distinguished from the preceding only by its scabrous head 
and thorax and longer pubescence. The varieties did not occur mixed together ; the 
type and a were very abundant near Pt. Porphyry : and y are found along the en- 
tire coast of the lake. 

'8 A. granularis. — Subelongatus, convexus, niger breviter albo-pubescens ; capite 
thoraceque dense minus subtiliter granulosis, illo basi subemarginato, angulis acutis, 
linea longitudinali tenui la;vi ; hoc capite non angustiore, latitudine breviore, obovato 
basi truncata, obsolete marginata ; elytris parallelis dense minus subtiliter punctatis, 
apice rufescente, antennis tibiis tarsisque testaceis. Long. "IS. 

Variat, a capite thoraceque fuscis, elytris testaceis fascia lata ad medium nigra. 

testaceus, elytris fascia fusca indistincta. 

•9 A. pallens. — Pallide testaceus, convexus, albido-pubescens, oculis nigris, capite 
triangular! basi emarginato, angulis acutis, minus dense punctato, linea longitudinali 
Isevi, thorace capite non angustiore, latitudine breviore, obovato, obsolete canaliculate, 
sat dense punctato, elytris subtilius punctatis, apice subtruncatis, abdomine nigro-fus- 
co. Long. "11. 

^^ M. pectoralis. — Augusta, nigra dense pubescens, thorace latitudine sesqui bre- 
viore, lateribus rectis, macula parva flava utrinque versus apicem, elytris postice paulo 
attenuatis macula magna basali ad suturam fere extendente, sutura margineque pone 
medium anguste flavis, abdominis segmento singulo flavo-raarginato, antennis pedibus 
pectoribusque flavis, his macula magna utrinque nigra. Long. "IS. Kakabeka. 

-' I have found it necessary to divide this genus, and therefore give the characters of 
my two groups. 

ANTHOBATES. 

Tarsi anteriores articulo 3'o subcalceato, emarginato que ; 4to minuto vix conspicuo. 

Ungues simplices, basi dilatati. Abdomen conicum, stylo anali nullo : coxis anticis 
permagnis, conicis, prosternum obtegentibus. This genus contains Anaspis 3-fasciata 
Mels. P. Ac. 2, 313, and two other similarly colored species. 

ANASPIS. 

Tarsi anteriores articulis decrescentibus, 4to perbrevi, bilobato. Ungues basi late vix 
dentati. Abdomen et coxaj ut supra. 

22 A. filiformis. — Linearis, rufo-testacea, dense flavo-pubescens, thorace capite pa- 
rum latiore, latitudine sesqui breviore, angulis posticis rectis, elytris subtilissime trans- 
versim rugosis, abdomine fusco, antennis nigris, basi testaceis. Long. '1. 



232 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Epicauta Dej. 
cinerea Dej. Cat. 

Lytta cin. Fabr. El. 2, 80. 
^ fissilabrls. 

SPHiERIESTES. 

^ virescens. 
Cephaloon Nm. 

lepturides Nm. Ent. Mag. 5, 377. 

varians Hd. J. Ac. N. S. 1, 95. 
DiTYLUS Fischer. 

coeruleus Hd. ib. 1, 96, 
AscLERA Dej. Schmidt. 

punctlcolUs Hd. ib. 96. 
Pytho Latr. 

Tivrra Kb. N.Z.IU. 
Melakdrya Fabr. 

^ maculata. 
Orciiesia Latr. 

gracilis Mels. P. Ac. 3, 5 7. 



Xylita Payk. 

^ buprestoides Pk: ««-"« Kb. N.Z. 240. 
Serropalpus Hell. 

substriatus Hd.J. Ac. N. S. 1, 98. 

obsoletus Hd. I. c. 98. 
ScRAPTiA Latr. 

biimpressa Hd. I. c. 100. 
CiSTELA Fabr. 

sericea Say. J. Ac. 3, 270. 
Platydema Lap. 

clypeata Hd. J. Ac. N. S. 1, 102. 
"Nehtes. 

aeneolus. 
Upis Fabr. 

ceramboides Fabr. El. 2, 584. 

Tenebrio reticu. Say. Exp. 2, 279. 

vai'iolosus Beauv. 
^ Crymodes. 

discicollis. 



23 E. fissilabris. — Nigra opaca, confertissme subtiliter punctata, breviter pubescens, 
fronte macula parva rufa, labro sparse punctato, brevi, profunde emarginato. Long. -68. 
Kakabeka. 

Very different from E. atrata in the form of the labrum. 

^ S. virescens. — Elongatus, niger, supra obscure virescens, nitidus, capite thoraceque 
dense punctatis, hoc capite non latiore, lateribus rotundatis, basi angustato, elytris 
thorace sesqui latioribus, subtiliter punctato-striatis, sutura interstitiisque alternis 
punctis paucis seriatis, antennis capite thoraceque longioribus, basi rufo-piceis. Long. 
•12. 

** M. maculata. — Fusca, nitida, punctata, breviter vix conspicue pubescens, thorace 
fere semicirculari, basi media late lobata, angulis posticis acutis, impressione magna 
utrinque a medio ad basin extendente, elytris fascia lata ad medium apiceque cum pedi- 
bus palporumque basi testaceo-pallidis. Long. -So. 

An Emmesa connectens Nm. Ent. Mag. perperam descripta ? 

26 I have not been able to compare this with European specimens. 

2'' Nelites. Clypeus antice prolongatus, non marginatus. Palpi maxillares cylin- 
drici, articulo 4 to longiore truncato. Tarsi postici articulo 1 ^o elongato. Antennae 
apice sensim Icviter incrassatae. Differs from Hoplocephala in having the clypeus not 
margined anteriorly ; the antennae are less incrassated, the penultimate joints being 
scarcely transverse ; I know not how it differs from Phyletes (Meg.), having had no 
opportunity of examining the latter. 

N. aeneolus. — Supra obscure viridi-ocneus, nitidus, ovalis convexiusculus, capite tho- 
raceque punctatis, hoc transverso, lateribus rectis, margine anguste reflexo diaphano, 
elytris thorace latioribus punctato-striatis, interstitiis uniseriatim subtilissimepunctula- 
tis, subtus niger, antennis, ore pedibusque rufo-piceis. Long. "15. Pic, to Fort 
"William. 

28 Crymodes. Corpus alatum elongatum. Antennae capite sesqui longiores, granoss, 
articulis 3 ultimis subabrupte majoribus. Clypeus antice truncatus, vix marginatus, 
labro brevi. Mandibulae prominulae, apice acute incisae. Palpi maxillares apice trun- 



EEMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 



233 



'' Priogxathus. 

monilicornis. 

Ditylus mon. Rand. B. I. 2, 22. 
Attelabus Lin. 

pubescens Say. J. Ac. 5, 252. 
Arrhenodes Stev. 

maxillosus Sch. 1, 326. 
Cleonus Sch. 

obliquus. 

LiSTRODERES Sell. 

humills Sch. 2, 284. 
Alophus Sch. 

subguttatus. 
Hylobius Germ. 

heros. 

assimilis Sch. 2, 345. 

confusus Kb. N. Z. 196. 
Otiorhynchus Germ. 

subcinctus. 
PissoDES Germ. 

nemorensis Germ: tSc^. 3, 262. 

affinis Rand. B. J. 2, 24. 
Grypidius Sch. 

gibbifer. 
Erirhinus Sch. 

sparsus. 



Anthonomus Germ. 

sigiuitus Sch. 7, 221. 
Phytobius Schmidt. 

intequalis. 

Ceulorynchus ince. Say. Cure. 22. 
Orchestes Eliger. 

pallicornis Sch. 3, 505. 
Ceutorhyncus Schiipjjel. 

nigrita DeJ. 

nodicoUis DeJ. 
CossoNUS Fabr. 

platalea Say. Cure. 24. 
Rhyncolus Creutzer. 

pulvereus. 
Hylurgus Latr. 

americanus Dej. Cat. 

BOSTRICHUS. 

conform! s Dej. Cat. 

cum duobus alteris. 
Cis Latr. 

obesus. 

rugosus. 

Triphyllus rug. Rand. B. J. 2, 26. 
Spondylis Fabr. 

^ laticeps. 



cati, articulis subacqualibus. Men turn quadratum, latitudine fere duplo brevius, antice 
subrotundatum. Pedes tenues, tarsi artieulo 1 ™o longiore. Approaches Boros, but the 
antenntE are very different : the clypeus is not prolonged in front of the antennas, and 
the lateral margin bends downwards before reaching the eyes. 

C. discicoUis. — Elongatus, piceus, punctatus, capite lateribus parallelis antice acute, 
thorace capite plus sesquilatiore, transverso rotundato, basi angustato truncatoque ; 
planiusculo, ad latera, et in disco leviter bi-impresso ; elytris thorace nou latioribus 
parallelis, versus suturam indistincte striatis. Long. -62. 

29 PiuoGNATHUS. Corpus alatum elongatum. Caput ejongatum antice acutum oculis 
parvis integerrimis, clypeo impresso, marginato labro valde transverso. Antenna; longe 
ante oculos sitre, capite thoraceque longiores, artieulo 3 'o leviter elongate, 3 ultimis 
subrotundatis. Mandibular apice incisa?, intus serratae. Palpi maxillares artieulo 
ultimo leviter inflate, truncate. Mentum transversum, antice truncatum. Pedes 
tenues, tarsi artieulo 1 ™o longiore. 

I know not what induced Mr. Randall to class this insect with the (Edemeridse, it is 
plainly a Tenebrionite, although the position of the antennae with reference to the 
eyes is peculiar. Only the last three joints of the antennae are meniliform. 

3° S. laticeps. — Niger, punctatus, thorace cordate, capite non latiore, obsolete car- 
inate, elytris costis 3 vel 4 minus distinctis, antennis capite thoraceque fere longiori- 
bus. Long. 15. 

16 



234 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Criocephalus Muls. var. lunulatus Kb. N. Z. 1 75. 

agrestis Hald. Am. Tr. 10, 35. "gibbulus. 

Tetropium Kirhy. ^dilis Serv. 

IsARTHRos Dej. Muls. ^" despectus. 

cinnamopteruin Kh. N. Z. 174. Amniscus Dej. 

Callidium Fabr. macula Hald. I. c. 48. 

dimidiatum Kb. N. Z. Lamia macula Say. J. Ac. 5, 268. 

Clylus palliatus Hd. I. I. 41. Pogonocherus Meg. 

proteus Kb. N. Z. 172. ^penicillatus, 

collare Kb. N. Z. 171. Tetraopes Dalm. 

Clytus Fabr. 5-maculatus Lee. Hd. I. c. 53. 

speciosus Say. Am. Ent. pi. 53. Saperda Fabr. 

undulatus Say. ib. ^^adspersa. 

undatus Kb. N. Z. 1 75. ^^ moesta. 
Sayi Lap. Clyt. 

Eagle Harbor, Mr. Rathvon. Very similar in appearance to S. buprestoides, but the 
form of the thorax is different. The posterior tibia; are scarcely dilated at the end. 

31 C. gibbulus. — Niger pubescens, thorace oblongo, modice elevato, confertissime 
punctato, elytris confertim subtiliter punctatis, basi subgibbosis, gibberis minus eleva- 
tis, ante medium rufis, lineis 2 obliquis apiceque densius cinereo-villosis : antennarum 
articulo l^o tarsisque rufis. Long. -27. 

Very similar to C. verrucosus, but the thorax is less elevated and the elytra more 
distinctly punctured and mucli less gibbous : the S^fl joint of the antenna; is not arm- 
ed with a spine: in the markings there is no difference, except that the. cinereous lines 
are less oblique. 

•^2 JE. despectus. — Niger cinereo-pubescens, supra punctis pluribus nigro-pubescenti- 
bus variegatus, thorace transverso Irovi, basi abrupte constricto, serieque transversa, 
punctorum notato ; elytris apice truncatis macula oblonga sublaterali versus medium 
fasciaque angulata pone medium nigris. Long. '41. 

The antennte and posterior tibia; are annulated, the former in both sexes but little 
longer than the body : the femora have one or two black spots. It is found everywhere ; 
the ? has the anal segment elongate and truncate. 

•^3 P. penicillatus. — Cylindricus, niger dense cinereo-pubescens, thorace lateribus 
spinoso, disco valde tuberculato, calloque parvo pone medium elevato, confertissimfi 
punctulato, elytris apice truncatis, cinereo, fuscoque variegatis, fascia lata ante medium 
alliida ; 3-carinatis, carina 1 ^^ pilis longis nigris fasciculata, interstitiis minus dense 
punctatis. Long. •27. Pic. The antennaj and feet are annulate. 

I am doubtful if the next species (Tetraopes) is found at Lake Superior. 

3-* S. adspersa. — Nigra, ochraceo dense pubescens, thorace latitudine sesquibrevi- 
ore, grossius ocellatim punctato, punctis nigris ; spatio utrinque fere ad apicem es- 
tendente minus dense pubescente ; elytris postice subangustatis, sutura acuminata, 
sparsim grosse nigro-punctatis, hue illuc spatiis densius pubescontibus, quorum unum 
mox pone medium oblique versus suturam ascendit. Long -9. 

Very close to S. calcarata, but the color differs, and the thorax is shorter. 

35 S. moesta. — Nigra cinereo-pubescens, grosse confertim punctata, thorace latitu- 
dine vix breviore, basi leviter angustato, cinereo-bivittato, elytris apice rotundatis, an- 
tennis corpore brevioribus annulatis, basi nigris. Long. -5. Pic. 

The claws are entire, although at first view it would seem to be a Phytoecia; the 
head has a black, finely impressed frontal line. The eyes are almost divided. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 235 

MoNOCHAMUS Dej. Kb. '* Evodinus. 

scutellatus Hd. I.e. 51. monticola. 

resutor Kb. N. Z. 167. Leptura mont. Rand. B. J. 2, 27. 

^ mutator. ^ Acm^ops. 

Rhagium Fahr. discoidea. 

lineatum Sch. Syn. 3, 414. Pachyta disc. Hald. I. I. 60. 

^ Argaleus, proteua. 

attenuatus. Leptura Proteus Kb. N. Z. 186. 

Pachyta atten. Hd. A7n. Tr. 10, 59. Pachyta suUineata Hd. 60. 

^^ nitens. *'strigilata. 

3S M. mutator. — Niger, pube cinereo variegatus, thorace confertim rugoso-puncta- 
to, spinis horizontalibus dense albido-pubescentibus, scutello albo, elytris dense punc- 
tatis, punctis antioe elevatis ; rufo-piceis, pube cinereo, fuscoque variegatis, antennis 
nigris, cinereo annulatis. Long. -98. 

This is very similar to M. confusor Kb. (maculosus Hd.), but the thorax, which is 
smooth in that species with a few small punctures, is rugosely punctured, and the 
suture of the elytra is slightly prolonged. The 5 has very long black antennae. 

^'' Argaleus. Caput mox pone oculos non constrictum ore attenuato, palpis labi- 
alibus modice dilatatis. Antennaj ante oculos inserts, longse ; oculi antice emarginati, 
postice truncati. Tibias posticaj apice truncataj, calcaribus terminaliter sitis. Thorax 
spinosus. Elytra triangularia. 

Differs from Toxotus cylindricollis, &c., in the form of the eyes, as well as the situa- 
tion of the terminal spurs of the tibire. The spinous thorax gives an appearance like 
Rhagium. To this genus belongs the European Toxotus cursor. 

A. nitens. — Minus elongatus, niger subtiliter dense punctatus longe cinereo-pubes- 
cens, thorace eanaliculato, antice angustato, basi apiceque profunde constricto, lateri- 
bus acute tuberculatis, elytris postice angustatis, apice subtruncata, glabris punctatis 
luteis, disco ssepius infuscato ; antennis articulo 4'o abbreviato. Long. -6. Pic. 

39 EvoDixus. Caput mox pone oculos angustatum, ore attenuato ; palpis apice 
oblique truncatis. Antenna; ante oculos insertne, longaj : oculi magni vix emarginati. 
Thorax lateribus acute tuberculatus. Mesosternum angustum, parallelum, coxis mag- 
nis. Elytra triangularia, apice truncata. 

E. monticola. — Niger, fulvo-pubescens, thorace eanaliculato, utrinqvie constricto, 
elytris subtilissime rugose punctatis, flavis, utrinque maculis 2 parvis ante medium 
transversim sitis, alteris 2 majoribus lateralibus, apiceque nigris : antennis rufescenti- 
bus, corpore vix brevioribus. Long. -4. On the flowers of Cornus. 

40 AcMiEOPS, Caput mox pone oculos angustatum, palpis apice recte truncatis. 
Antenna3 ante oculos insertaj. Thorax apice constrictus, vel tuberculatus, vel gibbus, 
vel simplex. Mesosternum triangulare. 

A numerous group, which may be divided into two sections. 

A. Body thick, mouth short. — Pachyta thoracica Hd. some new species, with the 
European P. virginea and collaris. 

B. Body more slender, mouth elongated : the species cited above, with 4-vittata. 

*i A. strigilata. — Niger, punctatus, flavo-pubescens, capite elongato, subrostrato, tho- 
race convexo antice angustato, tenuiter eanaliculato, minus dense punctato, elytris 
latiusculis, postice non angustatis, apice truncata, luteis humeris apiceque infuscatis. 
Long. -28. 



23t) 



LAKE SUPERIOK. 



Lept. strig. Payk.Fn. Suec. 3, 112. 

Pachyia strig. Muls. Long. 246. 

Lept. semimarginata ? Rand. B. J. 
2, 30. 
^ Anthophilax. 
viridis. 
malacliit'ica. 

Leptura mal. Hd. I. c. 64. 

Stenura njanea Hd. P. Ac. 3, 151. 
Strangalia Latr. Serv. Muls. 

^Stenura Serv. 
nigrella. 

Lept. nigrella Say. J. Ac. 5, 279. 
*'plebeja. 

Leptura pi. Ra7id. B. J. 2, 28. 
cordifera. 

Leptura cord. 01. Ins. 4, 73. 
6-maculata. 

Leptura 6-mac. Lin. Kb. N. Z. 182. 
subargentata. 

Leptura subarg. Kb. N. Z. 184. 



Leptura Lin. 

canadensis Fabr. El. 2, 357. 
$ tenuicornis Hd. I. c. G4. 

proxima Say. J. Ac. 3, 420. 

chrysocoma ii &. N. Z. 182. 

rufula. 

Pachyta ruf. Hd. I. c. 60. 

pubera Say. J. Ac. 5, 279. 

^* tibialis. 

mutabilis Nm. Ent. Mag. 
luridipennis Hd. I. c. 63. 

sphferlcoUis Say. J. Ac. 5, 280. 
DoNACiA Fabr. 

proxima Kb. N. Z. 225. 

episcopalis Lac. 1. 

magnifica. 

hirticollis Kb. N. Z. 226. 
rudicollis Lac. Chrys. 1 , 1 08. 

porosicollis Lac. ib. 1, 150. 

fulgens. 

distincta. 



The Sf"! and 4* joints of the antennae are equal, and a little shorter than the 5"i. 
Varies with the elytra fuscous. I have diligently compared this with European spec- 
imens, without finding any difference. 

*2 Anthophilax. Caput mox pone oculos constrictum, palpis dilatatis, labialibus 
multo latioribus. Antennae ll-articulatse,^ inter oculos insertse ; oculi emarginati. 
Thorax angulis posticis rectis, utrinque modice constrietus, lateribus acute tubercu- 
latis. 

To this group belongs Pachyta 4-maculata of Europe. Differs from Strangalia and 
Leptura by the dilated labial palpi. 

A. viridis. — Nigra, capite thoraceque virescentibus, punctatis, cinereo-pubescenti- 
bus, hoc antice angustato, utrinque constricto, leviter canaliculato, lateribus subacute 
spinoso, elytris grosse confluenter punctatis, substriatis, splendide viridi-ajneis, apice 
rotundata, antennis apice, tibiis basi rufescentibus. Long. ■&. Eagle Harbor. 

The S^*! joint of the antennae is longer than the 4'^. 

*^ S. plebeja. — Elongata, nigra, confertim punctata, thorace longe flavo-pubescente 
lateribus parum rotundatis, utrinque tenuiter profunde constricto, angulis posticis 
laminatim productis ; elytris testaceis, postice sensim angustatis, paulo dehiscentibus, 
apice intus incisa. Long. -55. 

Precisely similar to S. nigrella, except in the color of the elytra: the pubescence of 
the thorax is long and prostrate ; while in S. nigrella it is short and erect. 

■•■* L. tibialis. — Nigra, brevitcr flavo-pubescens, capite thoraceque confertissime 
punctatis, hoc convexo, antice parum angustato, apice, basique constricto, lateribus vix 
rotundato, elytris confertim punctatis, subparallelis, apice paulo dehiscentibus, intror- 
sum oblique leviter truncatis, flavo-testaceis, macula lateral! ad medium, altera majore 
pone medium, apiceque nigris, tibiis tarsisque flavis, illis apice fuscis. Long. -43. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 



237 



pusilla Saij. J. Ac. 5, 293. 

fulvipes Lac. Chrys. 1, 192. 

cuprea Kb. N. Z. 225. 

gracilis. 

aurifer. 

gentilis. 

emarginata Kh. N.Z. 22i. 

flavipes Kb. N. Z. 223. 

jucunda. 

confusa. 
Orsodacna Lafr. 

tibialis Kb. N. Z. 221. 

testacea. 
Syneta Esch. Lac. 

rubicunda Lac. I.e. 1, 230. 
*^ Taraxis. 

abnormis. 
CRYPTOCEPnALUs Fabr. 

4-maculatus Say. J. Ac. 3, 441. 

tridens. Mels. P. Ac. 3, 172. 
Pachybrachys. Dcj. 

M-nigrum Hd. J. Ac. N. S. 1, 261. 

abdominalis Hd. ibid.^263. 
Heteraspis Dej. 

pumilus Dej. Cat. 
Pachnephorus Dej. 

10-notatus. 

Colaspis 10-not. Say. J. Ac. 3, 445. 
Pack, variegatus Dej. Cat. 



Metachroma Dej. 

gilvipes Dej. Cat. 

canella Dej. Cat. 

Crypt, canellus F. El. 2, 52. 

4-notata. 

Colaspis 4,-not. Say J. Ac. 3, 446, 
NoDA Dej. 

pimcticoUis Dej. Cat. 

parvula Dej. 
FiDiA Dej. 

lurida Dej. 
Colaspis Fabr. 

lineata. 
Phyllodecta Kb. 

*«vitellin8e teste Kb.N. Z. 216. 
Helodes Fabr. 

trivittata Say. J. Ac. 5, 298. 
Phytodecta Kb. 

" rufipes teste Kb. N. Z. 213. 
Lika Meg. 

discIcoUis. 

consanguinea. 
Chrysomela Lin. 

scalaris Lee. An. Lye. 1. 

spirajse Say. 

eonfinis Kb. N. Z 211. 

elegans Oliv. 91, ^4.. fig. 92. 
Plectroscelis Chevr. 

chalcea Dej. 



*^ Taraxis. — Antennae basi distanteSjbreviusculse articulo 1 ™o majore crassiore, 3'o 
secundo sesqui longiore 5 ^ 4 'o que paulo brevioribus, reliquis longitudine crassioribus. 
Oculi emarginati. Coxai anticse parvaj globose, approximata;, prosterno non promi- 
nulo. Abdomen articulo 5 to majore inferne emarginato, segmentulo anali aucto. Tarsi 
articulo 3 'o late, parum emarginato, unguibus late appendiculatis. Palpi apice acumi- 
nati. Thorax elytris angustior a medio ad basin valde angustato constrictoque, apice 
iterum leviter constricto, elytris cylindricis apice rotundatis. 

T. abnormis. — Testacea, nitida, grosse punctata, thorace linea minus distincta 
laevi, elytris ad scutellum et pone medium, cum vertice, pectoribusque rufescentibus. 
Long. -15. Pic. Looks like a minute Syneta, but at once distinguished by the abdo- 
men, tarsi and antennae. 

■*6 I give this as identical with the European on Kirby's authority. I have not been 
able to compare specimens. 

*'' I have had no opportunity of comparing with European specimens. 



238 



LAKE SUPEKIOR. 



confinis Dej. 
DisoNYCHA Chevr. 
5-vittata. 

Altica 5-vit. Say. J. Ac. 4, 85. 
Graptodera Chevr. 
cuprea. 
ignita. 

Alt. ignita III. Mag. 6, 117. 
Galleruca Fahr. 
canadensis Kb. N. Z. 219. 
cribrata DeJ. 

gelatinariae Fair. El. 1, 490. 
*^ sagittarise Gyll. teste Kb. 219. 
notulata Fabr. El. 1,4:89. 
Olivier! Kb. N. Z. 218. 
Hippodamia Chevr. Redt. 
abbreviata Dej. Cat. 

Coccinella abb. Fabr. E. 1, 360. 
parenthesis. 

Coccinella par. Say. J. Ac. 4, 93. 

C iridens Kb. N. Z. 229. 

5-signata. 

Coccinella 5-sig. Kb. K Z. 230. 
1 3 -punctata Dey. Cat. 

Cocc. IB-punc. Lin. Fn. Su. 481. 
C — tibialis Say. J. Ac. 4, 94. 
Coccinella Lin. 

9-notata F. El. 1, 3G6. 



5-notata Kb. N. Z. 230. 
3-fasciata F. El. 1, 363. 
tricuspis Kb. N. Z. 231. 
incarnata Kb. ib, 
venusta Mels. P. Ac. 3, 178. 

notulata Dej. Cat. 
15-punctata oliv. 

mali Say. J. Ac. 4, 93. 
puUata Say. J. Ac. 5, 302. 

notans Rand. B.J. 2, 49. 
confuse-signata. 
picta Rand. B. J. 2, 51. 

concinnata Mels. P. Ac. 3, 177. 
immaculata Fabr. El. 1, 357. 
Psyllobora Chevr. 
20-maculata. 

nana Dej. Cat. 

Cocc. 20-mac. Say. J.Ac. 4, 98. 
Brachiacantha Chevr. 

bis-5-pustulata Fabr. El. 1 384. 

ursina F. ib. 386. 

var. minor. 
disconotata. 
consimilis. 

*' OXYNTYCHUS. 

moerens. 

SCYMNUS. 

^ caudalis. 



■♦8 Nor have I compared this species. 

49 Corpus alatum breviter oblongura antice subangustatum glabrum. Antennse ca- 
pite breviores articulo 2 "do majuscule, ultimo ovali majore. Ligula emarginata. Scu- 
tellum distinctum. Ungues simplices. Epipleurse impressse. Abdomen articulo 1 ^° 
laminarum margine externo curvato. 

O. moerens. — Niger nitidus, punctulatus, thoracis margine, elytrorumque gutta 
minuta pone medium testaceis, antennis tarsisque rufis. Long. •!. St. Ignace. 

Variat, a elytris gutta altera parva humerali testacea, margine pone medium rufes- 
cente. Niger immaculatus. 

*" S. caudalis, — Breviter ovalis, convexus, punctatus, niger, thorace lateribus, anten- 
nis. palpis pedibus, abdominisque segmentis 2 ultimis rufis, mesosterno lato, fere trun- 
cate, abdominis laminis integris, basi punctatis, ad marginem segmenti 1 "" fere ex- 
tendentibus. Long. -09. $ articulo ultimo abdominis late profunda emarginato, pedibus 
capiteque rufis. 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 239 



^'lacustris. Orthoperus. 

punetum. flavidus. 

%rnatus. Corylophus. 

lugubris. 



Plate 8th represents twelve new species of the Coleoptera, de- 
scribed in the preceding Catalogue. 



On glancing over the catalogue which is just ended, the entomolo- 
gist cannot fail to be struck with two very remarkable characters dis- 
played by the insect fauna of these northern regions. First, the entire 
absence of all those groups which are peculiar to the American 
continent. Thus, there is no Dicaelus, no Pasimachus among the 
Carabica ; the Brachelytra are represented only by forms common 
to both continents. Among the Buprestidse is no Brachys ; in the 
Scarabseidas, the American groups (except Dichelonycha) are com- 
pletely unrepresented ; in brief, there is scarcely a genus enumerated 
which has not its representative in the Old World. The few new 
genera which I have ventured to estabHsh, are not to be regarded as 
exceptions, they are all closely allied to European forms, and by no 
means members of groups exclusively American. 

Secondly, the deficiency caused by the disappearance of charac- 
teristic forms, is obviated by a large increase of the members of 
genera feebly represented in the more temperaite regions, and also 
by the introduction of many genera heretofore regarded as confin- 
ed to the northern part of Europe and Asia. Among these latter 
are many species which can be distinguished from their foreign 

*' S. lacustris. — Breviter ovalis, convexus, punctatus, niger, mesosterno lato fere 
truncato, abdominis laminis integris, basi punctatis, ad marginem segmenti 1™' fere 
extendentibus. Long. -OD. $ articulo ultimo abdominis profunde triangulariter im- 
presso ; basi minus dense punctata ; pedibus vcl rufis, vel piceis, rufo-marginatis. 

9 abdomine integro, eequaliter dense punctato, antennis pedibusque nigris, posticis 
nonnunqwam rufis. 

*2 S. ornatus. — Ellipticus, convexus dense subtiliter punctatus, niger elytris utrinque 
macula magna obliqua ante medium, alteraque magna orbiculata pone medium la;te 
rufa, antennarum basi tibiis tarsisque fusco-rufis, abdominis laminis extrorsum omnino 
obliteratis, mesosterno lato, parum emarginato. Long. '08. 
16* 



239* LAKE SUPERIOR. 

analogues only by the most careful examination. This parallelism 
is sometimes most exact, running not merely through the genera, 
but even through the respective species of which they are composed ; 
thus of the two species of Olisthgerus, each is most closely related 
to ■ its European analogue, 0. laticeps being similar to 0. megace- 
phalus, while 0. 7iitidus can scarcely be known from 0. substriatus. 

While upon this subject, we may take occasion to distinguish the 
different kinds of replacement of species, which are observed in pass- 
mii from one zoolo;::ical district to another more or less distant. 
There appear to be four distinct modifications by which faunas are 
characterized. 

1st. When the same species, or organic forms, so similar as to pre- 
sent no appreciable difference, appear at points so situated as to 
preclude the possibility of any intercommunication. These are most 
rare, and are only observed when the physical circumstances under 
which the species exists are nearly identical. 

2d. When a species in one district is paralleled by another in a 
different region so closely allied that upon a superficial glance they 
would be regarded as the same. These are called analogous species ; 
e. g., the Olisthgeri, Spondyli, Bembidia, Helophori, &c., &c., of 
the preceding catalogue, as compared Avith European species. 

od. Where several species in one region' are represented by 
several others of the same genus, which perform a similar part in 
the economy of nature, without, however, displaying any farther 
affinity to each other. These are called eqnivale^it species ; e.g., 
most of the species of Cicindela, Brachinus, Ciytus, Donacia, &c.,of 
America, as compared with those of the eastern world. 

4th. Where the members of a group are represented collectively 
by kindred species in another district, which however display such 
differences of structure that each may at once be referred to its pro- 
per locality ; e. g.,most of the Melolonthse among Coleoptera, and 
the entire group of Quadrumana among mammalia. 

Now it will be observed, that in proceeding from the Arctic circle 
to the tropics, the prominent character of the fauna is successively 
modified by these peculiarities. We pass from a region where the 
fauna is the same at remote points, through one where the produc- 
tions are similar, but not identical, to one finally, where the equilib- 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 240 

rium of forms is still preserved, but where the general arrangement is 
totally different, the prominent groups of one continent being either 
feebly represented on the other, or else entirely wanting. 

It does not become us, in the present imperfect state of tropical 
exploration, to determine what groups are peculiar to each continent ; 
we can merely say that particular forms are more abundant in certain 
regions. For by a strange fatality, (at least in Coleoptera,) no sooner 
is any group admitted by a common consent to be exclusively Amer- 
ican, than suddenly, as if produced by the well-known jugglery of 
those countries, a species starts up in Central Asia, or Africa, (e.g., 
Galerita, Agra, Sandalus.) Still, enough remains to show us that 
the prevailing character of tropical fauna is individuality ; the 
production of peculiar forms within limited regions : while the dis- 
tinguishing feature of temperate and arctic fauna is the repetition of 
similar or identical forms through extensive localities. 

On proceeding now to illustrate these deductions by special exam- 
ples from the catalogue before us, it will be seen that the parallelism 
of species in temperate and frigid climates can be demonstrated more 
particularly in the genera which are more universally diffused over 
the earth, or in those which are especially confined to temperate re- 
gions, than in such as receive their principal development within the 
tropics. Thus for instance, among the great group of Carnivorous 
Coleoptera, the terrestial species, (although well represented in cold 
climates,) contain an immense number of genera, each of which 
(with few exceptions) seems to have a particular locus, external to 
which it is feebly represented. Accordingly in this group, the par- 
allelism of species is by no means clear, and the forms are rather to 
be considered equivalent than analogous. On the other hand, 
among the aquatic Predaceous Coleoptera, the genera are but few, 
and the tribe is more abundant in cold regions ; and in these the 
parallelism is most exact, so that there are but few mentioned in the 
preceding pages, that have not their exact counterparts in Europe. 
The characters appended to the new species will render this sufficient- 
ly obvious to the student, while the relations of those previously 
described by Kirby and Aube have already been clearly pointed out 
by those authors. 

Passing on to the other water-beetles, the species of Helophorus 



240* LAKE SUPERIOR. 

and Ochthebius will afford other striking examples of this parallelism. 
Among the Brachelytra are numerous other instances, the most re- 
markable being the genus Olisthaerus, already alluded to. Protei- 
nus and Megarthrus also for the first time appear on this continent. 
The Aphodii with large scutellum, the Ditylus, Pytho, Sphaeriestes, 
and Spondjlus are also good illustrations. Among the Elateridae are 
numerous instances, but having not yet submitted this group to phi- 
losophical study, I have not ventured to describe the new species, 
but have merely indicated them by names. For the present there- 
fore, any remarks on the parallelism of the forms in this group must 
be postponed. Notwithstanding this approximation to a uniform, 
subarctic standard, we still find in these boreal regions, a prevailing 
character of North American fauna — the extreme paucity of Curcu- 
lionidge. The Donaciae too, although numerous, do not afford any 
prominent parallelism. The American species can only be regarded 
as equivalent to the European. 

On concluding this short essay on the geographical distribution of 
Coleoptera in the northern part of our continent, I feel that some 
cause must be assigned for the brief manner in which such extensive 
material has been disposed of. Enough has been given to point the 
laws of distribution, and to show that they accord most perfectly with 
those derived from other branches of natural history, while during 
the yet imperfect condition of entomological science in this country, 
a minute analysis of the components of the entire fauna would be a 
work of immense labor, and would in fact be rendered nugatory, 
until all the species are described, and all the groups submitted to a 
philosophical revision. My complete success in tracing the par- 
allelism between the Pselaphidae of Europe and North America (in 
an unpublished monograph of this family) leads me to believe that 
a rich store of material is herein presented to such minds as are satis- 
fied with statistical comparisons between the inhabitants of different 
zoological districts ; and that nothing but industry and a free access 
to the most common European insects is required to produce a most 
formidable list of analogous species. I shall rest satisfied with having 
shown that this parallelism exists even more accurately than in the 
vertebrate class, and with having pointed out examples far more 
numerous than those furnished by the higher animals : the more so, 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 241 

since I feel that one already conversant with entomological names 
will find no difficulty in extending the already long list of parallel 
species, while to the general reader, who desires only the deductions 
of science, without entering upon the tedious processes by which 
they are obtained, a catalogue of mere technicalities, which fail to 
convey a single idea to his mind, will be equally useless and uninter- 
esting. 

I purposed in the present essay to trace, as far as possible, the 
mechanism of the agency by which the present distribution of species 
has been effected, and to reduce its most obvious results to some fixed 
principles. Fearful, however, lest my views should be considered as 
derived exclusively from a consideration of insects, and their phe- 
nomena of distribution, I prefer waiting until a sufficient familiarity 
with other sciences will enable me to be less partial in my choice of 
illustrations. I do this with the less regret as I find some of my 
deductions are at variance with many of the most ancient, and most 
firmly established prejudices of our nature, and before venturing any 
assertion, which even in appearance deviates from " general impres- 
sions," it is at least prudent to be supported by facts drawn from 
more extended observation than is furnished by one or two limited 
departments of knowledge. 

In the rapids at Niagara have been observed large numbers of 
the singular animal described by Dekay (in the Zoology of New 
York) as a new genus of Crustacea, under the name of Fluvicola 
Herricki. They were attached to stones just below the surface of 
the water, and crawled but slowly ; when seized, they endeavor to 
contract themselves into a ball. 

These animals have a marvellous resemblance to the extinct group 
of Trilobites, although, as will be seen in the sequel, they are the 
larvse of an insect. Mr. Agassiz informs me that a similar form has 
long been known to the zoologists of Continental Europe as Scutel- 
laria amerlandica, but I have not been able to find any published ac- 
count of it. 

On turning over some stones near the river bank, I was agreeably 
surprised to find many specimens which had left the water for the 
purpose of changing into pupae. The elliptical shield of the superior 



241* LAKE SUPERIOR. 

surface, which gives the animal its Crustacean appearance, was firm- 
ly adherent to the stone by its ciUated margin, and formed an excel- 
lent protection under which the later transformations could take 
place with safety. In fact, the superior shield being cast off with 
the larva skin, served in place of the cocoon or nest constructed by 
many larvae, before transforming. 

I regret that in the short account given by me at the recent 
meeting of naturalists in Cambridge, I was induced to speak of this 
discovery, without having access at the time to specimens. Those 
which I expected to find at Boston had been lost, and my former 
examination of the pupae collected by myself was very slight. I 
referred the insect to the order of Neuroptera, and I must here 
return my sincere thanks to my friend Dr. Harris, for a hint towards 
its true nature. 

For the opportunity of examining some very large and well devel- 
oped larvjB, I am indebted to my friend I. C. Brevoort, who procured 
them at Niagara in July of the previous year. 

The body proper of the larvae is elongate, the head being free, 
(i. e. not retractile,) but concealed under the large shield, like a pro- 
longation of the dorsal epidermis of the prothorax. On each side 
are six small, approximate ocelli, anterior to which is the antenna, 
a little longer than the head, and two-jointed ; each joint having a 
tendency to become divided at its middle, so that on a superficial 
inspection there would appear to be four joints. These organs are 
inserted at the outer extremity of the clypeo-cranial suture ; the 
labrum is large, and a little emarginate in the middle. The lower 
part of the head is covered by a large mentum, which prevents the 
mandibles and maxillae from being seen. The maxillary palpi are 
half the length of the antennae, filiform, rather stout, and three-articu- 
lated, the joints being equal. The labial palpi are bent down and 
covered by the epidermis. In the very young larvae the palpi are 
still shorter in proportion to the antennae. A more full description 
of the parts of the mouth must be reserved for a separate treatise, 
when their structure can be illustrated by plates. The abdomen is 
furnished on each side with six bunches of long branchial filaments, 
which proceed from the interstices between the articulations ; there 
is a larger bunch of filaments connected with the anal aperture, which 



REMARKS ON THE COLEOPTERA. 242 

may be retracted, and is ordinarily not visible in dead specimens ; 
exterior to these filaments on each articulation is a small fovea. The 
articulation itself is prolonged each side, for a short distance between 
the laminae of the expanded epidermis, sothot the outline of the proper 
fleshy portion is serrate. The legs are slender, the tarsus inarticulate, 
and furnished with a single claw. 

The pupa is broadly oval, and depressed. The head is concealed 
under a hood formed by the prolongation of the epidermis of the 
prothorax. This hood is produced at the posterior angles, so that it 
becomes exactly similar to the thorax of a Lampyris. 

The front between the antennae is transversely elevated, so that 
the mouth is situated on its inferior surface. The antennae are three 
times longer than the head, and inside of the pupa skin (in much 
developed specimens) are seen to be serrate, and eleven-jointed ; the 
palpi are two-thirds the length of the antennae, and are somewhat 
dilated at the extremity. The labial palpi are very short. The 
labrum is transversely cordate. The wings are bent under the body. 
The superior ones exhibit the structure of elytra, and have four slight 
longitudinal ribs : the inferior are membranous, and show a slight 
transverse nervure near the middle. The abdomen is six-jointed and 
serrate at the sides, owing to the angular prolongation of each joint, 
and is entirely free from branchial appendages. The last joint is 
rounded. The feet are slender, and not armed with a claw. The 
mesopectus is deeply channeled. . 

After the description just given of the pupa, no one will doubt 
that the insect belongs to the Coleoptera ; and from the serrate out- 
line of the abdomen, one would be inclined to refer it to the groups 
possessing larvae like the Lampyris, Lycus, &c. The separation of 
the prothorax and its great development, as w'ell as the structure of 
the superior wings, absolutely exclude it from the Neuroptera, to 
which I at first referred it. 

The peculiar structure of the head of the pupa, and the great 
length of the palpi, point clearly to Eurypalpus, a curious genus, 
which is placed by authors near Cyphon, which, as is well known, is 
closely allied to the Lampyridae. Eurypalpus differs very much from 
all the alKed genera, in being aquatic. It is furnished with slender 
legs, but the, tarsi are long, especially the last joint, which has two 



242* LAKE SUPERIOR. 

very strong claws, (as in Macronychus) to fit it for clinging to stones 
in a rapid current. The mesopectus of Eurypalpus is likewise deeply 
channeled. The elytra are also furnished with three or lour very 
obtuse elevated hnes. As yet there is but a single species of the 
genus known. E. Lecontei, (Dej. Cat.) I am not aware that any 
description has been published of it. 

Thus is settled the history of the transformations of an anomalous 
form, which has much perplexed naturalists for many years. Its 
history shows the care with which our investigation should be made, 
when we are upon unknown ground. But where the homologies of 
the animal with other aquatic larvae provided with branchia are so 
exact, it is a little remarkable that its larval character should remain 
so long unnoticed. The only difference between it and an ordinary 
larva (either of Coleoptera or Neuroptera) is the prolongation of 
the dorsal epidermis, to form a shield under which the true body is 
concealed. Similar prolongations are found in nearly all orders of 
insects. 

I know not how Dr. Dekay fell into the mistake of considering 
the elongate palpi as a second pair of antennae : and surely such an 
anomalous form as a Crustacean with six legs, and a head separate 
from the thorax, deserved a more careful examination, before receiv- 
ing a definite place in the system. 

The figure in the New York Zoology, (as the animal is very pecu- 
har in its form,) bears a certain vague resemblance to what it was 
intended to represent ; but for all systematic purposes, it is, like 
nearly all the plates in that part of the State Survey, perfectly 
wortUess. 



V. 

CATALOGUE OF SHELLS, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF 
NEW SPECIES. 

BY DR. A. A. GOULD. 



Helix albolabris, Say. Northern shore, Michipicotin. 

" tridentata. Say. Niagara, Mackinaw. 

" thyroidus. Say. Niagara, Maclcinaw. 

" alternata. Say. Niagara, Mackinaw. 

" palliata. Say. Niagara. 

" monodon, RacJcett. Niagara, Mackinaw. 

" perspectiva. Say. Niagara, Mackinaw. 

" striatella, Anthony. Fort William, Cape Gourganne, N. E. of St. Ignace. 

" concava, Say. Niagara. 

" arborea, Say. Mackinaw, Fort William, Cape Gourganne, St. Ignace. 

" electrina, Gould. Cape Gourganne. 

" chersina. Say. Michipicotin, Cape Gourganne. 
^ Vitrina limpida, Gould. Cape Gourganne. 
Succinea ovalis, Gould. Fort William. 

" obliqua. Say. Niagara, Northern Coast. 
" avara, Say. Niagara. 
Physa heterostropha. Say. Black River, Pie Island, Fort William. 



1 Vitrina limpida, Gould (F. pellucida. Say, in Long's Expedition. II. 258.) Having 
made a critical comparison of our Vitrina with the V. pellucida of Europe, with which 
species it has hitherto been regarded as identical, I am induced to believe that they are 
different species. The American shell is more globose ; the plane of the aperture is 
more oblique, and the basal portion of the lip sweeps round from the columella in a 
rapidly curving arc, instead of stretching off almost horizontally ; indeed the whole 
aperture is more nearly circular. These differences become quite obvious when the 
shell is greatly magnified. The color of the European shell is always more or less 
green or yellow, whereas the American specimens are colorless, and decidedly more 
fragile. In size, they are about one fourth smaller than the foreign ones, and have, at 
least, half a whorl less in the spire. It is indeed more nearly like V. suhglohosa, Mich, 
which, however, has a much more elevated spire, and its basal face much more inflated. 



244 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

"Physa vinosa, Gould. Northern coast, MIchipicotln. 

" ancillaria, Say. Niagara, Sault St. Marie, Michipicotin. 
Limuea jugularis, Say. Northern Coast. 

" caperata, Say. Niagara, Black River. 

" humilis, Say. Michijiicotin, Cape Gourganne. 
' " catascopium. Say. Northern shore, Fort William. 

" desidiosa. Say. Northern shore. 
* " lauceata, Gould. Pic, Gourganne. 

2 Physa vinosa, Gould, T. tenui, ovato-globosa, badiu, spiraliter miniitissime stri- 
ata, epidermide tenui induta ; spira obtusa, anfr. 4, ultimo permagno ; apertura ovato- 
lunata, % longitud. testa; adequante, hepatica ; columella recta, tenui. Long. \, lat. 
4 poll. Proceed. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., II., 263, Dec. 1847. 

I quote the above description of a species first brought from Lake Superior by Dr. 
C. T. Jackson, and hitherto found only in the region of that lake. Prof. A. found it on 
the north shore, at Michipicotin. It is well characterized by its inflated form, delicate 
structure, striated surface, its wine-red color externally, and its liver-brown color within. 
It resembles, somewhat, 'P. ancillaria, which differs in form by having shouldered 
whorls, and its greatest diameter behind the middle. Unfortunately, the figure has 
been drawn from a very small specimen, and does not exhibit the characters of a full- 
grown specimen. (See pi. 7, figs. 10 and 11.) 

* LiMNEA CATASCOPIUM. There is no slight difficulty in defining the limits of allied 
species in this genus. While real specific characters are very few and ill defined, the 
variations of species are very numerous and wide in their range ; nevertheless, by a 
certain facies, or by collecting large numbers at a given locality, we are able to pro- 
nounce shells which are very different in their aspect to be specifically identical. 
These remarks apply with special force to the species above named. Some of the 
specimens are elongated and slender, while others are short and ventricose ; some are 
thin and fragile, others dense and firm ; some are smooth or with a delicately cor- 
rugated epidermis, others are indented and broken into numerous facets ; some have a 
very largely developed fold on the pillar, while others present a simple column ; in 
some the columella is curved and flexuous, in others it is direct ; some have regular 
and symmetrical outlines made up of cylindrical whorls, while others have a very acute 
angle and a broad shoulder at the posterior part of the body whorl ; and the color may 
be amber, brownish, livid or cinereous. There can be little doubt that these wide va- 
riations have been regarded as different species, as indeed they could not fail to be, 
were only isolated specimens examined ; but when we come to compare large numbers 
collected in company, we see the connecting links and the necessity of retaining them 
under one name. Among them we find L. pinguis, Say, which Mr. Haldeman has al- 
ready referred to this species ; and also L. emarginata, Say, which, from the few speci- 
mens he had seen, Mr. Haldeman deemed to be a well marked species. The numerous 
specimens since brought from the Lake Superior region render it sufficiently certain 
that it is only a variety of L. casfascopimn, with the last whorl more or less angular 
posteriorly, and with a straight pillar which gives to the base of the aperture a pecu- 
liarly broad and distorted form. 

Amid all the variations, however, there is a certain aspect of the aperture which is 
characteristic. It is large when compared with that of L. ■umhrosa, or L. elodes ; it is near- 
ly semicircular, while in large specimens of L. desidiosa, where the proportional size of 
the aperture is more nearly the same, its posterior outline is broad and nearly transverse. 

* LiMNEA LANCEATA, Gould. Testa mediocri, fragili, diaphana, cornea, attenuata, 
Btriis increment! et striis volventibus argute reticulata ; spira; anfr. 6 planiusculis, per- 



CATALOGUE OF SHELLS. 245" 

Planorbis bicarinatus, Say. Sault St. Marie, Black River. 

" parvus, Say. Sault St. Marie. 
Valvata tricarinata, Say. Black River. 
Amnicola grana, Say. Fort William, Cape Gourganne. 
Paludina ponderosa, Say. Niagara. 
Melania liveseens, Menke. (niagarensis, iea.) Niagara. 

" subulata. Niagara. 
Cyclas similis, Say. Sault St. Marie. 

" partumeia (young) ? Say. Fort William. 
^ Pisldium dubium, Say. Fort William, INIicbipicotin. 
Unio radiatus, Gmel. Northern shore. 
Anodonta Pepiniana, Lea. Northern shore. Cape Gourganne. 

The number of bivalve shells seems to diminish very abruptly at the chain of 
the great lakes ; so that of the great number of species, so profuse also in the 
number of indi>'iduals, in the States bordering on the south, scarcely ten spe- 
cies, and those not abundant, are found to the north ; and all these are meagre 
in development, and of the simplest form and color. 

obliquis, ultimo I testae scquante ; apertura angusta, dimidiam longitudinis fere ade- 
quante, postice acuta, plica columellari conspicua, acuta, vix spiral! ; labro fascia cas- 
tanea submarginali picto. Long. 5, lat. 5, poll. Pi-oceed. Bost. Soc. Nat. History, 
111. 64. Oct. 1848. (See pi. 7, figs. 8 and 9.) 

A medium sized species, with an elongated, delicate, minutely reticulated shell, com- 
posed of about six very oblique flattish whorls, the last of which constitutes three fourths 
of the whole shell. The aperture is narrow, having a sharp, slightly winding fold on 
the pillar, and a submarginal brown stripe just within the lip. 

Next to L. gracilis, this is the most delicate species we have. It may be compared 
with L. attenuata and L. refiexa, from both of which it differs in the flatness of its 
whorls, in its narrow, elongated aperture, and in being only half their size. It is much 
like Physa hypnortim reversed. 

5 PisiDiUM DUBiuii. The separation from Cyclas of some species under the name of 
risidium being regarded as legitimate, I place this shell under that genus. The shells 
brought from Lake Superior seem, however, to differ somewhat from specimens from 
the Atlantic region. They are smaller, more elevated, less sulcated, and the hinge is 
less robust. I had designed to apply to them the specific name P. teneUmn, but un- 
fortunately the specimens were mislaid before I had examined them with sufficient 
care to give the characters with the requisite precision. 



VI. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR COMPARED WITH THOSE OP 
THE OTHER GREAT CANADIAN LAKES. 



Besides the interest there is everywhere in studying the living 
animals of a new country, there is a particular interest to a natural- 
ist in ascertaining their peculiar geographical distribution, and their 
true affinities with those of other countries. It is only by following 
such a course, that we can hope to arrive at any exact results as to 
their origin. In this respect the freshwater animals have a peculiar 
interest, as from the element they inhabit, they are placed under 
exceptional circumstances. 

Marine animals, as well as those inhabiting dry land, seem to have 
a boundless opportunity before them to spread over large parts of the 
earth's surface, and their locomotive powers would generally be suf- 
ficient to carry them almost anywhere ; but they do not avail them- 
selves of the possibility ; notwithstanding their facilities for locomo- 
tion, they for the most part remain within very narrow limits, using 
their liberty rather to keep within certain definite bounds. This 
tendency of the higher animals especially, to keep within w^ell-ascer- 
tained limits, is perhaps the strongest evidence that there is a natural 
connection between the external world, and the organized beings 
living upon the present surface of our globe. The laws which regu- 
late these relations, and those of geographical distiibution in partic- 
ular, have already been ascertained to a certain extent, and will 
receive additional evidence from the facts recorded during our jour- 
ney. 

The freshwater animals are placed in somewhat different circum- 
stances. Their abode being circumscribed by dry land within limits 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 247 

which are often reduced to a narrow current of water, and being far- 
ther, for the most part, prevented by structural pecuharities from 
passing from the rivers into the ocean, they are confined within nar- 
rower limits than either terrestrial or marine types. Within these 
limits again they are still farther restricted ; the shells and fishes of 
the head-waters of large rivers, for instance, being scarcely ever the 
same as those of their middle or lower course, few species extending 
all over any freshwater basin from one extreme of its boundary to the 
other ; thus forming at various heights above the level of the sea, 
isolated groups of freshwater animals in the midst of those which in- 
habit the dry land. These groups are very similar in their circum- 
scription to the islands and coral reefs of the ocean ; like them they 
are either large or small, isolated and far apart, or close together in 
various modes of association. In every respect they form upon the 
continents as it were a counterpart of the archipelagoes. 

From their circumscription, these groups of lakes present at once 
a peculiar feature in the animal kingdom, their inhabitants being en- 
tirely unconnected with any of the other living beings which swarm 
around them. What, for instance, is there apparently in common 
between the fishes of our lakes and rivers, and the quadrupeds which 
inhabit their shores, or the birds perching on the branches which 
overshadow their waters ; or what connection is there between the 
few hermit-like terrestrial animals that live upon the low islands of 
the Pacific, and the fishes which play among the corals, or in the 
sand and mud of their shores ? And nevertheless there is but one 
plan in the creation ; freshwater animals under similar latitudes are 
as uniform as the corresponding vegetation, and however isolated and 
apparently unconnected the tropical islands may seem, their inhabi- 
tants agree in their most important traits. 

The best evidence that in the plan of creation animals are intended 
to be located within circumscribed boundaries, is farther derived from 
tlueir regular migrations. Although the Arctic birds wander during 
winter into temperate countries, and some reach even the warmer 
zones ; although there are many which, fi'om the colder temperate 
climates, extend quite into the tropics, there is nevertheless not one 
of these species which passes from the northern to the southern hem- 
isphere ; not one which does not return at regular epochs to the 



248 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

countries whence it came from. And the more minutely we trace 
this geographical distribution, the more we are impressed with the 
conviction that it must be primitive, that is to say, that animals must 
have originated where they live, and have remained almost precisely 
within the same limits ever since they were created, except in a few 
cases, where, under the influence of man, those hmits have been 
extended over large areas. To express this view still more distinctly, 
I should say that the question to be settled is, whether for instance 
the wild animals which live in America originated in this continent, 
or migrated into it from other parts of the world ; whether the black 
bear was created in the forests of New England and the Northern 
States, or whether it is derived from some European bear, which by 
some means found its way to this continent, and being under the 
influence of a new chmate, produced a now race ; whether the many 
peculiar birds of North America which live in forests composed of 
trees different from those which occur either in Europe or Asia, 
whether these birds, which themselves are not identical with those of 
any other country, were or were not created where they live ; 
whether the snapping turtle, the alligator, the rattlesnake, and other 
reptiles which are found only in America, have become extinct in the 
Old World after migrating over the Atlantic, to be preserved in this 
continent ; whether the fishes of the great Canadian lakes made their 
appearance first in those waters, or migrated thither from somewhere 
else ? These are the questions which such an inquiry into the geo- 
graphical distribution of animals involves ; it is the great question of 
the unity or plurality of creations ; it is not less the question of the 
origin of animals from single pairs or in large numbers ; and, strange 
to say, a thorough examination of the fishes of Lake Superior, com- 
pared with those of the adjacent waters, is likely to throw more light 
upon such questions, than all traditions, however ancient, however 
near in point of time to the epoch of creation itself. 

In order to proceed methodically in this investigation, our first 
step must be to examine minutely, whether the fishes of Lake Supe- 
rior are the same as those of other lakes in this or any other country, 
and if not, how they differ. To satisfy ourselves in this respect, we 
shall successively examine all the families of fishes which have repre- 
sentatives in those great freshwater seas. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 249 

Petromyzontid^ (Lampre^'-eels.) 

There are families in all departments of nature, whose peculiarities 
call for an investigation of their more general relations rather than of 
their structural details. The Petromyzons are in this case. Closely 
aUied together and circumscribed in a most natural family, it is a ques- 
tion whether they should be entirely separated from all other fishes 
to form a great group by themselves, or whether they belong to one 
of those great divisions in which the individual members diifer widely 
from each other. In other words, should the Petromyzons stand by 
themselves in a natural classification of fishes, as Prince Canino and 
Joh. Miiller have placed them, or shall we combine them with skates 
and sharks, as Cuvier has done ? To answer such a question, it is 
necessary to discuss beforehand principles of the utmost importance 
in the study of natural history, and above all to settle the follow- 
ing difficulty : — Is the study of anatomical structure an absolutely 
safe guide in the estimation of the relations of animals to each other ? 
Cuvier, who made the study of comparative anatomy the foundation 
of classification, carried out this principle in a most remarkable man- 
ner, and improved the natural arrangement of animals most sur- 
prisingly ; indeed, he made zoology truly a science by it ; but with 
a tact that characterizes genius, he limited the absolute consequences 
of this law by a true appreciation of the relative value of characters ; 
introducing at the same time with the principle of classification ac- 
cording to the structure of animals, that of subordination of charac- 
ters, without which the first great principle might mislead us, instead 
of helping to ascertain the true relations of organized beings. Now 
it seems to me as if zoologists and anatomists had of late insisted too 
strictly upon the absolute differences which exist between animals, 
instead of attempting to appreciate the relative value of the differ- 
ences noticed. Of course, as this latter point rests almost within the 
limits of individual appreciation, it is more difficult to find the right 
path here, than in almost any other department of zoological investi- 
gations ; but I hope to be able to introduce another great principle 
of zoological classification, which shall afford a safe guide to settle 
such doubts ; I mean the study of embryonic development. 

Let me now show, in the present instance, how I consider it possible 
17 



250 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

to be led by anatomical evidence considered in its absolute results, to 
combinations strictly opposed to those which an additional acquaint- 
ance with embryonic development might indicate. 

Guided by his admirable natural feeling of affinities, Cuvier placed 
in one and the same great division, sharks, skates, and lamprey-eels. 
Influenced by anatomical investigation, and indeed by the most min- 
ute and admirable knowledge of their anatomical structure, derived 
from unparalleled investigations, Joh. Miiller concluded, on the con- 
trary, that the Cyclostomata were to be separated from the' other 
cartilaginous fishes, and placed by themselves at the other end of 
the class. Who is right in this case cannot be ascertained by any 
farther anatomical investigation ; it has thenceforth become a matter 
of individual appreciation, unless we introduce another principle, by 
which we can weigh the real value of these remarkable differences. 
Such a principle, I think, we have in the metamorphosis of embryonic 
life. Indeed, if it can be shown, that besides the differences which 
exist in all fishes between their earliest forms and their full-grown 
state, there are peculiarities in sharks, skates, and lamprey-eels 
common to all of them, from an early period of development, which 
remain characteristic throughout life, it must be acknowledged that 
these famihes belong to one and the same great group, notwithstand- 
ing their extreme differences in their full-grown condition. Now, 
such facts exist. In the first place, it is impossible, without disturb- 
ing their true affinities, to consider an extraordinary development of 
pectoral and ventral fins as a standard to appreciate fundamental 
relations between fishes, as in all fishes, without exception, they are 
both ivantincj in earlier life, and as there is scarcely a family in which 
ventrals at least, are not wanting in some genus or other. We might 
just as well place Petromyzons among the eels, as their common 
English name purports, on the ground of the deficiency of their 
abdominal and thoracic organs of locomotion, as separate them from 
the other Placoids. Again, the peculiarities in the development of 
the dorsal, caudal, and anal fins in sharks and skates, and the differ- 
ences which exist between them and the Petromyzons, indicate in 
no way their affinity or their difference ; in Petromyzon we have the 
embryonic condition of vertical fins, where a continuous fold in the 
skin of the middle line extends, as in all embryo fishes, from the back 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 251 

round the tail, towards the abdominal region. In the sharks we 
have distinct vertical fins, as they generally grow out of the continu- 
ous, embryonic odd fin ; whilst in skates these fins disappear almost 
entirely, or are considerably reduced. That animals in their embry- 
onic condition are neither so elongated as many of cylindrical form in 
their full-grown state, nor so short as some others, is ascertained by 
the embryology of snakes and toads. Thus, all the great external 
differences which exist between skates and sharks on one side, and 
Petromyzon on the other, do not show that these animals do not 
belong to the same natural group, as we have even among the full- 
grown ones, what we may call transitions between the extreme forms ; 
for instance, sharks with more elongated body than others, with more 
extensive vertical fins, even with two dorsals and some without ven- 
trals. Again, the remarkable form of skates arises solely from an 
extraordinary development of the pectorals ; they are nevertheless 
closely alHed to sharks, notwithstanding the striking difference in the 
position of the gill-openings. 

As for the anatomical differences which exist among these fishes, 
and upon which so much stress is placed as to make the want of a 
heart, in Amphioxus, the foundation for a peculiar class to include that 
single fish, let us not forget, that there is an epoch in embryonic life, 
when no vertebrated animal has yet a heart ; when the vertebral 
column is a mere soft continuous cord ; when the brain is scarcely 
subdivided into lobes ; when the head, as such, is not yet distinct 
from the trunk ; when the mouth is a mere circular opening at the 
anterior extremity of the body ; when the gills are simple fissures on 
the sides of the head, or at what is to be a head, without branchio- 
stegal rays or operculum, or protecting covering of any kind. 

Whoever is famiUar with the anatomy of fishes must perceive, after 
these remarks, that the peculiarities which characterize Petromy- 
zon, have a bearing upon the embryonic condition of their structure 
even in their full-grown state, and do not by any means mark a dif- 
ference between them and the sharks and skates, any more than 
between them and any other family of fishes. On the contrary, 
should it be possible, after these statements, to show that there are 
important characters, common to Petromyzon, sharks and skates, 
notwithstanding their extreme external differences, it should be 



252 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

acknowledged that Cyclostomata and Plagiostomata are only different 
degrees of one and the same great type. Now, such characters we 
have ; m the first place, m the structure of the mouth, which differs 
so widely from that of the other fishes, and agrees so closely in all 
Placoids, as Muller himself has shown in his Anatomy of Myxinoids. 
Next, the teeth also agree, in being arranged in several concentric 
series, and also in their microscopical structure, as well as in their 
mode of attachment to tlie skin lining the jaw, and not to the bone 
itself. We have other hints of the relation between Cyclostomes 
and Plagiostomes .in their spiracles, and also in their numerous respi- 
ratory apertures, so that, after due consideration, I come to the con- 
clusion that the IMyxinoids and Petromyzons, far from being the types 
of pecuhar subclasses, are simply embryonic forms of the great type 
to which sharks and skates belong, bearmg to these powerful ani- 
mals, in a physiological point of view, the same relation which exists 
between Ichthyodes and the tailless batrachians. 

Of Cyclostomata, two species have been mentioned as occurring in 
the colder parts of North America, both referred by Dr. Richardson 
to the genus Petromyzon proper, but of which I have seen no trace 
myself in the great lake region, though I know Petromyzons to occur 
below Niagara Falls, However, I am able to add a new species of 
this family to the fauna of those waters, which belongs to the genus 
Ammocoetes, and was found in the mud in Michipicotin River, at the 
landing place of the Factory, the first specimens of which were picked 
up by the students when dragging their canoes along the shore. 

Ammoccetes borealis, Agass. 

This pretty little species differs from all those already known, by 
easily appreciable characters. It is at first sight plainly distinguished 
from the Ammocoetes hicolor., Les. and A. brancJiialis, Dum. whose 
dorsal fin is, as it were, divided into two lobes by a very low emargina- 
tion ; but it resembles the Am. concohr, Kirt. and unicolor, Dekay, 
in its dorsal fin, being uniformly continuous. It differs, however, from 
this latter, whose form is much moi*e elongated, by the extent of its 
dorsal fin, which equals one half of the whole length of the body, whilst 
in the Am. unicolor it extends scarcely before the anus. In the 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 253 

individual which has served for this description, the whole length 
exceeds a little five inches. 

The general form of the body is compressed, differing still in 
that respect from A. unicolor, which is subcjlindrical, w^hilst the 
concolor is cylindrical at its anterior, and compressed at its posterior 
part. Our species is, on the contrary, in some manner ribbon-like, 
and its length goes on diminishing regularly from the neck towards 
the tail, where it ends in an attenuated and obtuse caudal lobe. 
The neck is prominent, but the skull is declivous. The upper lobe 
of the mouth, which terminates the anterior extremity, is concave, 
the opening of the cavity which it circumscribes being turned 
downwards. The anterior margin of the lip is concave, the lateral 
margins describe a convex lobe to the angles of the mouth. The 
lower lip is completely distinct from the upper, small and fixed upon 
the anterior of the lateral margins of the upper ; it is slightly con- 
cave about the middle of its circumference. The convex lateral 
lobes are elliptical. The mouth, placed in the centre of the funnel 
formed by the two lips, is proportional to the size of the fish. When 
it is shut it seems to be cleft vertically, though in reality it is cir- 
cular. The branched fringes which surround the mouth, are 
especially developed on the lower lip and at the angles of the mouth ; 
they lengthen, but are reduced in thickness, on the inner side of the 
upper lip, under the form of an isosceles triangle, whose interior 
is equally furnished with them. The opening of the nose is situate 
in a circular depression between the anterior extremity of the 
skull and the inner margin of the upper lip. Tliis depression 
is continued upwards, and terminates about the middle of the skull. 
The eyes are very small and placed on the sides of the head, at the 
height of the angles of the mouth, in a slight furrow of the face. 
The branchial openings are subcircular or convex in front, truncated 
behuad, and open in a wrinkled furrow half an inch long, in form of a 
very elliptical curved line. The first branchial opening is at a dis- 
tance of ^ of an inch behind the angles of the mouth. The anus opens 
in a depression at a distance of | of an inch from the extremity of the 
caudal fin ; it is cleft longitudinally, and bordered by two thinned lips. 
The anal fin, very low at its origin immediately behind the anus, widens 
a little as it advances towards the caudal, with which it unites after 



254 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

having produced a more marked lobe. The dorsal fin is higher, but 
like the anal grows in height towards the posterior extremity, and 
forms like it a more dilated lobe before it unites with the caudal. 
This latter extends over an equal length above and below the tail. 
It is separated from the dorsal and anal fins by a notch, beyond which 
the fin arises to the height of the terminal lobes of the two anterior 
fins, and preserves the same height along the whole circumference of 
the tali, under the form of an elongated oval. Undulated, annular, 
transverse lines, distinct enough on the sides of the body, corres- 
ponding with the lateral muscles of the trunk, are very marked. 

This species is from Michipicotin, where we have picked up a rather 
large number of specimens. 

Lepidosteus. 

This genus of fishes is known throughout the United States 
under the name of gar-pike. It is a very singular animal, and its his- 
tory is closely connected with the most important progress which has 
recently been made in ichthyology. 

The first knowledge naturalists had of this remarkable fish was 
derived from Catesby, who published a figure and a short account 
of it in his Natural History of South Carolina. 

Linnaeus, who received specimens of the same species from Dr. 
Garden of South Carolina, introduced it into his Systema Naturce 
under the name of Esox osseus, supposing it allied to the common 
pickerel, because its dorsal and anal fins are opposite to each other 
and far back, near the end of the tail.* 

Lacepede, who first noticed some of its peculiarities, removed it 
from the genus Esox, and established a distinct genus for it, under 
the name of Lepisosteiis, which name, however, not being quite 
grammatically correct, I afterwards modified to Lepidosteus, which 
is now generally received. 

The French naturalist knew a second species of that genus, from 
the Mississippi, which he called Lepidosteus Spatula. Afterwards 

* For some zoological particulars respecting this fish, see preceding Narrative, 
page 33. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 255 

Rafinesque described several more, which, however, can scarcely be 
identified, as his descriptions are so very short and imperfect as to 
give little information upon their structure. In his Animal Kingdom, 
Cuvier characterized the genus Lepidosteus more correctly than his 
predecessors, without, however, noticing the great difference which 
exists between this genus and the common Ahdominales among which 
he places it. 

It was my good fortune early in the course of my scientific studies 
to perceive the striking differences which exist between these Lepidos- 
tei and all the other fishes now living upon our globe ; and at the 
same time to call the attention of naturalists to the close relationship 
which exists between them and the fossil fishes of the earlier geologi- 
cal ages. So that, after an extensive study of the remains of these 
ancient inhabitants of olden time, Lepidosteus has become notable as 
the only living representative of the large group of fishes which peo- 
pled, almost exclusively, the waters during the early ages of the 
earth's history, and which has gradually decreased in number, until, 
at last, he- was left almost alone to remind the observers of the present 
age, of a once powerful and widely spread dynasty among the watery 
tribes. 

These facts call for a close examination of this singular fish. In 
the first place, let me say, that all the species of Lepidosteus, of 
which I now know ten distinct species, inhabit exclusively the fresh 
waters of North America. This is, in itself, a remarkable fact, 
most important in the history of nature, as it shows that far from de- 
riving its inhabitants from other parts of the world, America has 
had, and has now, animals which are entirely pectiliar to it, and 
which have nowhere any near relatives. 

I am well aware that the Bichir of the Nile is remotely allied to 
the gar-pikes, and that another species of Polypterus occurs also in 
the Senegal; but this genus constitutes also by itself a peculiar 
group, and can only be considered as distantly related to the Lepi- 
dostei. 

Another remarkable peculiarity in the geographical distribution of 
these fishes consists in the fact that different species are limited to 
different water basins, as the species of the Middle and Southern 
Atlantic States are as different from those of the Western waters as 



26H LAKE superior; 

they are from the species which occur in the Northern lakes ; so 
thnt, not only is the genus located in a peculiar continent, but the 
individual species are also confined to special regions of this coun- 
try, from the great Canadian lakes to the freshwaters of Florida, and 
from the Atlantic rivers to the numerous affluents of the Mississippi. 
New England, however, has no species, and this is the more surpris- 
ing as they occur further north in the St. Lawrence, and further 
south in the Delaware. 

The question now arises, how this genus of fishes stands in its 
class ; and whether, notwithstanding their peculiarity, they may not 
be associated with some other families. 

Before answering this question, let me insist upon another fact, 
that, even if we take into account the nominal species of Rafinesque 
and that beautiful species of the Northern lakes first described by 
Dr. Richardson, the Lepidostei are only ten in number. And if we 
introduce into the same general division, the Polypteri, we shall 
have a natural group of fishes containing in the present creation not 
more than a dozen species. And even should we suppose that 
some more relatives of that group may be discovered in the course of 
time, we can by no means suppose that this family would ever contain 
as large a number of species as most of the other families of the class. 
We need only remember the innumerable species of suckers, or of 
cat-fishes, which occur every where in our fresh waters, or the 
various kind of perch, mackerel, codfish, &c., which swarm in the 
ocean, and among which the new discoveries to be expected can 
hardly be fewer than among our Lepidostei, to be satisfied that there 
is here a remarkable contrast between these families. It is therefore 
a fact plainly shown by this evidence, that the most natural groups 
of animals which we discover in nature, difier widely among them- 
selves in the number of tlieir representatives. 

It is not less obvious, that these groups differ from each other in a 
very unequal degree, taken as general groups or considered in the 
isolated members of their families. 

The amount of difference which distinguishes the gar-pikes from 
the common pickerels, or from the trouts, or from the herrings, 
or from the suckers, is far greater, for instance, than that which dis- 
tinguishes the pickerels from the trouts, or the trouts from the 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 257 

herrings ; and again, the generic differences which occur among 
the trouts, the graylings and white-fishes, and distinguish them from 
ti-ue salmon, are far greater than that which exists between the chubs, 
gudgeons, barbels or carps ; and the specific distinctions which may 
be noticed in these different genera are again of an unecjual value. 
So that we arrive at once to this important conchision, that 
natural groups in the animal kingdom show naturally differences of 
unequal value, and that all attempts on the part of naturalists to 
equalize the divisions which they acknowledge in their researches, 
must, as a matter of course, result in failure; and I have not the 
slightest doubt that our classifications have not been more imjiroved, 
and that we have made less extensive progress in the knowledge 
of the true relationship between the various groups of the animal king- 
dom, for the very reason that we have too often aimed at an arrange- 
ment which the most familiar facts in nature plainly contradict. 
Instead of this desired uniformity, we sometimes observe a numer- 
ous group of closely allied species corresponding to another group 
with few, but more distinct and more widely different species, and 
even isolated types, the relation of which seems to branch in 
all directions, without ever coming very close ta any other group. 
Now, unless our classifications admit, as a natural limit, this diver- 
sity, it will be impossible ever to form a system which will answer 
to the natural afiinities really existing in nature. As I have said on 
another occasion,* classification should be a picture from nature, and 
not an artificial frame of our own invention, into which natural objects 
ai'C more or less conveniently brought together. 

Another important point of view, of which naturalists should never 
lose sight, is the relation which exists between animals now foimd 
alive on various parts of the surface of our globe, and those known 
to us only from fossil remains discovered in strata of a different geo- 
logical age. 

The Lepidosteus, however isolated in the present creation, had 
once many and very diversified representatives all over the globe. 
Fossils of the same family of which the gar-pike is the type, have been 
found all over Europe in the oldest fossiliferous beds, in the'^strata of 
the age of the coal ; in the new red sandstone ; in the oolitic deposits, 

* See Principles of Zoologrj , by L. Agassiz and A. A. Gould, Vol. II. 



258 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

and even in the chalk and tertiary beds. They existed in the same 
wide range upon the continent of North America, and have been found 
in Asia as well as in New Holland ; so that this family, now limited to 
the continent of North America, and, if we include in it the Bichip 
also, to two river basins of Africa, — was once cosmopolite in its 
geographical distribution. 

The natural consequence from such evidence is, that we cannot 
arrive at a true insight into the relations of the animal creation, unless 
we study, at the same time, the living animals, and those which have 
become extinct ; and that a natural classification must associate the 
fossils promiscuously in their natural relationship with the living 
types. The separation of palaeontology from zoology, for the 'sake 
of convenience in the study of geological phenomena, has been very 
injurious to the real progress of zoology, and is so entirely unscientific, 
that until they are again combined under the same head, even in our 
elementary text books, we can hardly expect that zoology will make 
the progress which extensive investigations carried on singly, in the 
study of living and fossil animals, would lead us to expect. 

Moreover, the identification of fossils requires a close investlgar 
tion of such characters as are shown in the only remains of extinct 
species which have been preserved, and which are, almost exclusive- 
ly, their solid parts. It is therefore very important that, in zoological 
investigations, more attention should be paid to the characters derived 
from such parts as are the only ones accessible in the study of fossils. 

The mutual advantages to be derived from such a course cannot but 
be strikingly felt by those who have devoted their attention to the 
study of fossils. It may even be said that the condition of fossil rC' 
mains, as they generally occur in rocks, has led naturalists to study 
more carefully the living species, than they did before. I need only 
mention the minuteness with which the skeletons of living animals 
have been described since it has been necessary to identify extinct 
species from isolated bones. 

The skeletons of fishes, which were neither correctly figured in 
zoological drawings of these animals, nor minutely examined in their 
structure, are no longer considered as unworthy of the attention of 
minute observers. Even our knowledge of the structure of the 
shells in mollusca and of the wings of uisects, has been improved with 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 259 

reference to the identification of fossil remains. It is therefore plain 
that comparative anatomy should be more extensively and intimately 
combined with zoology than is generally the case. The classification 
of the animal kingdom should no longer be based simply upon the 
structure of the animals, but form and structure should everywhere 
and always be considered in their intimate connections. 

I have already alluded to the narrow circumscription of the genus 
Lepidosteus, within the limits of the temperate zone of North Amer- 
ica. In like manner, also, the Marsupialia, for instance, are almosf 
wholly confined to New Holland, and the Edentata to Brazil. All 
this goes to show that there is an important connection between a 
given country and its inhabitants, which rests with the primitive plan 
of the creation. 

The limited existence of Lepidosteus in North America in the pre- 
sent creation has, no doubt, reference to the fact that North America 
was an extensive continent long before other parts of the globe had 
undergone their most extensive physical changes. Or in other 
words, that the present character of this continent has not been 
much altered from what it was when the ancient representatives of 
Lepidosteus lived ; while in other parts of the world, the physical 
changes have been so extensive as to exclude such forms from 
among the animals suited for them. 

We have therefore here a hint towards a more natural and deeper 
understanding of the laws regulating the geographical distribution of 
animals in general. 

There are animals and plants whose detailed history is, as it were, 
at the same time, the history of that branch of science to which they 
belong. This is particularly the case with those animals, which, 
from particular circumstances, have thrown unusual light upon the 
relations which exist between them and their alUed types. There 
are even a few such animals, the study of which has actually marked 
the advance of science. I cannot notice on this occasion the gar- 
pike without being strongly reminded how strikingly this has been 
the fact with Lepidosteus. The first sight I had of a stuffed skin of 
that fish in the Museum of Carlsruhe, w^hen a medical student in the 
University of Heidelberg, in 1826, convinced me that this genus stood 
alone in the class of fishes ; and that we could not, by any possibility, 



26Q LAKE SUPERIOR. 

associate it; with any of the types of living fishes, nor succeed in 
finding, among living types, any one to associate fairly with it. It 
was a fact, at once deeply impressed upon my mind, that it stands iso- 
lated among all living beings ; and this early impression has gradually 
led me to the views respecting classification which I have expressed 
above, and which have frequently guided me in appreciating both 
the various degrees of relationship, and also the differences which I 
have noticed among different families ; and, I may say, has also'ke|)t 
me free from fanciful attempts at symmetrical classifications. 

Somewhat later, my investigations of the fossil fishes led me to 
the distinct appreciation of the great difference there is between the 
characters of the class of fishes in early geological ages ; I also 
noticed that all the bony fishes of former ages are more or less 
allied to the gar-pike, and widely different from the types of 
fishes now prevailing. But the real nature of this difference was 
only gradually understood. I had not yet perceived that the fishes 
of older times had peculiar characters of their own, not to be 
found either among the more recent fossils or among the liv- 
ing representatives of that class. But the opportunity of study 
ing the skeleton of Lepidosteus, which was afforded me in Paris by 
Cuvier, showed at once, that these fishes have reptihan characters.* 

The articulation of their vertebrae differs from that of the verte- 
brae of all other fishes no less than the structure of their scales. 
Their extremities, especially the pectoral limbs, assume a higher 
development than in fishes generally. Their jaws also, and the 
structure of their teeth, are equally peculiar. Hence, it is plain 
that, before the class of reptiles was introduced upon our globe, 
the fishes, being then the only representatives of the type of verte- 
brata, were invested with the characters of a higher order, embody- 
ing, as it were, a prospective view of a higher development in 
another class, which was introduced as a distinct type only at a 
later period ; and from that time the reptilian character, which had 
been so prominent in the oldest fishes, was gradually reduced, till, 
in more recent periods, and in the present creation, the fishes lost in 

* For further details, see my Recherches sur las Poissons Fossiles, Vol. II. part 2, 
p. 1-73. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 261 

the successive creations all this herpetological relationship, and were, 
at last, endowed with characters which contrast as much, when com- 
|}ared with those of reptiles, as they agreed closely in the beginning. 
Lepidosteus alone reminds us, in our time, of these old-fashioned 
characters of the class of fishes, as it was in former days. 

An opportunity afforded me by John Edward Gray, Esq., of the 
British Museum, of examining a specimen of this genus, preserved 
m alcohol, furnished another evidence that the reptilian character 
of Lepidosteus was not only shown in its solid parts, but was even 
exemplified in the peculiar structure of its respiratory apparatus and 
its cellular air bladder, as I have pointed out in the Proceedings of 
the Zoological Society of London.* 

One step further was made during this excursion, when, at Niag- 
ara, a living specimen of Lepidosteus was caught for me, and to my 
great delight, as well as to my utter astonishment, I saw this fish 
moving its head upon the neck freely, right and left and upwards, 
as a Saurian, and as no other fish in creation does. 

This reptilian character of the older fishes is not the only striking 
character which distinguishes them. Investigations into the em- 
bryonic growth of recent fishes have led me to the discovery that 
the changes which they undergo agree, in many respects, in a 
very remarkable manner, with the differences which we notice be- 
tween the fossils of different ages ; so much so, that the peculiar 
form of the vertebral column, and especially its odd termination in 
very young embryos, where the upper lobe of the caudal fin is pro- 
longed beyond the lower lobe, and forms an unequal, unsymmetrical 
appendage upwards and backwards, agrees precisely with the form 
of the tail of the bony fishes of the oldest geological deposits ; so 
that these ancient fishes may be said to have embryonic peculiarities 
in addition to their reptilian character. This fact, so simple in itself, 
and apparently so natural, is of the utmost importance in the history 
of animal life. It has gradually led me to more extensive views, and 
to the conviction that embryonic investigations might throw as much 
fight upon the successive development of the animal kingdom during 
the successive geological periods, as upon the physiological develop- 

* Proceed. ZoOl. Soc. of London, Vol. II. page 119. 



262 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

ment of individual animals ; and, indeed, I can now show, through all 
classes of the animal kingdom, that the oldest representatives of any 
family agree closely with the embryonic stages of the higher types of 
tlie living representatives of the same families ; or, in other words, 
that the order of succession of animals, through all classes and 
families, agrees, in a most astonishing measure, with the degrees of 
development of young animals of the present age. 

This being the case, it is obvious that a minute investigation of the 
embryology of Lepidosteus would throw a vast amount of light upon 
the history of the succession of fishes, of all geological periods ; and 
also would probably give the first indication of the manner in which 
the separation of true ichthyological characters from reptilian char- 
acters, was gradually introduced ; as it is more than probable, from 
all we know otherwise of the embryology of animals, that the young 
gar-pike, in its earliest condition, will have characters truly ichthy- 
ological, and only assume, gradually, the peculiar reptilian charac- 
ters which distinguish it. But notwithstanding all my efforts to 
secure the Lepidosteus in the breeding season, I have failed up to 
tliis day to gain the desired information. It only remains for me, 
therefore, to urge naturalists living near the waters inhabited by 
Lepidosteus to take up the subject as early as an opportunity is 
afforded them. 

Although Lepidosteus does not occur in Lake Superior, I have 
deemed it sufficiently important to introduce these remarks here, as 
this fish occurs in all the northern lakes except Lake Superior, as 
far north even as Mud Lake, below Sault St. Marie. Its presence 
in these waters is another of the striking differences which exist 
between the ichthyological fauna of Lake Superior, and that of the 
other lakes ; and shows once more, within what narrow limits animals 
may be circumscribed, even when endowed with the most powerful 
means of locomotion, and left untrammeled by natural barriers. 

This Lepidosteus is one of the swiftest fishes I know. He darts like 
an arrow through the waters, and the facihty with which he overcomes 
rapids, even the rapids of the Niagara, shows that the falls of St. 
Mary would be no natural barrier to him, if there were no nat- 
ural causes to keep him within the limits in which he is found, 
and which extend from Lake Michigan, Lake St. Clair, and Mud 



FISHES OP LAKE SUPERIOK. 263 

Lake, through Lake Erie, and Ontario, down to the St. Lawrence 
and its outlet into the sea, into which this fish never ventures far, 
thouffh he does not altogether avoid brackish and salt water. 

Dr. Richardson was the first naturalist who described the northern 
Lepidosteus. He mentions it in his Fauna Boreali-Americana, 
under the name of Lepidosteus Huronensis, and gives a correct and 
detailed description of it. Nevertheless, it has been since mistaken, 
and referred to the southern species first described by Catesbj and 
Linnieus, from which it is however very distinct, both by the pro- 
portions of its parts, its scales, its fins, and especially by the form of 
its frontal bones, in which the supra-orbital emargination is much 
lower and more elongated. Again, notwithstanding the descrip- 
tion of Dr. Richardson, Dr. Dekay has redescribed it under the 
name of Lepidosteus Bison; and Zadock Thompson has described 
a young specimen under the name of Lepidosteus lineatus. At 
first, his description would seem to indicate a really distinct 
species ; but I have ascertained, by a series of specimens, that the 
differences pointed out are really the characters of the young, and 
have no value as specific characters ; the detached lobe formed by 
the upper raylets of the caudal fin is gradually united with the 
lower rays,* and the longitudinal stripe, which is well marked in 
young specimens of a few inches in length, gradually vanishes, to 
leave only a few spots upon the sides, which even disappear entirely 
in the oldest individuals. The vertical fins alone remain spotted in 
the adult. The natural color of this fish is a light greenish gray, 
passing downwards into a dull white. 

AciPENSERiD^ (^Sturgeons.') 

The family of Sturgeons is well characterized and easily distin- 
guished from any other in the class. These fishes have generally 
been placed in the order of Chondropterygians, near the sharks, 
until I objected to this association, and attempted to show that, not- 

* It is a very remarkable fact that several fishes of the old Red Sandstone period 
have, in their full-grown state, a peculiar form of their caudal fin, which is nearly 
identical with the form of the caudal fin of the young Lepidosteus ; a form which 
is otherwise unknown to me at present in the whole class of fishes. 



264 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

withstanding their extraordinary pecuUarities, thej are more closely 
related to the gar-pikes, than to any other group of fishes. This 
view, though at first strongly opposed, is now generally admitted, 
having been sustained both by anatomical and palseontological 
evidence. 

The sturgeons are generally large fishes, which live at the bot- 
tom of the water, feeding with their toothless mouths upon decom- 
posed organized substances. Their movements are rather sluggish, 
resembling somewhat those of the codfish tribe. 

Their geographical distribution is quite peculiar, and constitutes 
one of their prominent peculiarities. Located as they are, in the 
colder portions of the temperate zone, they inhabit either the fresh 
waters or the seas exclusively, or alternately both these elements, 
remaining during the larger part of the year in the sea, and ascend- 
ing the rivers in the spawning season. Although adapted to the 
cold regions of the temperate, they do not seem to extend into 
the arctic zone, and I am not aware that they have been observed in 
any of the waters of the warmer half of the temperate zone. The 
great basin of salt water lakes or seas which extends east of the Med- 
iterranean, seems to be their principal abode in the Old World, or at 
least the region in which the greater number of species occur ; and 
each species takes a wide range, extending up the Danube and its 
tributaries, and all the Russian rivers emptying into the Black 
Sea. _ From the Caspian they ascend the Wolga in immense 
shoals, and are found farther east in the lakes of Central Asiaj 
even as far as the borders of China. The great Canadian lakes 
constitute another centre of distribution of these fishes in the New 
World, but here they are neither so numerous, nor do they ever 
occur in contact with salt water in this basin. 

Northwards, there is another great zone of distribution of stur- 
geons, Avhich inhabit all the great northern rivers emptying into the 
Arctic Sea, in Asia as well as in America. They occur equally in 
the intervening seas, being found on the shores of Norway and 
Sweden, in the Baltic and North Sea, as well as in the Atlantic 
Ocean, from which they ascend the northern rivers of Germany, as 
well as those of Holland, France, and Great Britain. Even the 
Mediterranean and the Adriatic have their sturgeons, though few 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 265 

in number. There are also some on the Atlantic shores of North 
America, along the British Possessions as well as the Northern and' 
Middle United States. They seem to be exceedingly numerous in 
the northern Pacific, being found everywhere from Behring's Straits 
and Japan to the northern shores of China, and on the north-west 
coast of America, as far south as the Columbia River. Again, the 
so called western waters of the United States have their own 
species, from the Ohio down to the lower portion of the Mississippi, 
but it does not appear that these species ascend the rivers from the 
Gulf of Mexico. I suppose them to be rather entirely fluviatile, like 
those of the great Canadian lakes. 

Beyond the above limits southwards there are nowhere sturgeons 
to be found, not even in the Nile, though emptying into a sea in 
which they occur ; and as for the great rivers of Southern Asia and 
of tropical Africa, not only the sturgeons, but another flimily is 
wanting there, I mean the family of Goniodonts which in Central 
and Southern America takes the place of the sturgeons of the 
North. Again, all the species in different parts of the world are 
different. 

It is a most extraordinary fact, which Avill hereafter throw much 
light upon the laws of geographical distribution of animals and their 
mode of association, viz., that certain families are entirely circum- 
scribed within comparatively narrow limits, and that their special 
location has an unquestionable reference to the location of other ani- 
mals ; or in other words, that natural families, apparently little related 
to each other, are confined to different parts of the world, but are 
linked together by some intermediate form, which itself is located in 
the intermediate track between the two extremes. In the case now 
before us, we have the sturgeons extending all around the world in 
the northern temperate hemisphere, in its seas as well as in its fresh 
waters, all closely related to each other. Neither in Asia nor in 
Africa is there an aberrant form of that type, or any representative 
type in the warmer zones ; but in North America we have the 
genus Scaphirhynchus, which occurs in the Ohio and Mississippi, and 
which forms a most natural link with the family of Goniodonts, all the 
species of which are confined exclusively to the fresh waters of 
Central and South America. The closeness of this connection will be 

18 



266 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

at once perceiv'ecl by attempting to compare the species of true 
Loricarite with the Scaphirhynchus. I know very well, that the 
affinities of Goniodonts and Siluroids with sturgeons are denied, but 
I still strongly insist upon their close relationship, which I hope to 
estabhsh satisfactorily in a special paper, as I continued to insist 
upon the relation between sturgeons and gar-pikes, at one time 
positively contradicted, and even ridiculed. I trust then to be able 
to show, that the remarkable form of the brains of Silurid» comes 
nearer to that of sturgeons and Lepidostei, than to that of any 
other family of fishes. This being the case, it is obvious, that there 
must be in the physical condition of the continent of America some 
inducement not yet understood, for adaptations so special and so 
different from what we observe in the Old World. Indeed, such anal- 
ogies between the organized beings almost from one pole to another, 
occur from man down to the plants in America only, among its native 
products ; while in the Old World plants as well as animals have more 
cii'cumscribed homes, and more closely characterized features in the 
various continents at different latitudes. 

As for the species of sturgeons which occur in the Canadian 
lakes, I know only three from personal examination, one of which was 
obtained in Lake Superior, at Michipicotin, another at the Pic, and the 
third at the Sault : though I know that they occur in all other Cana- 
dian lakes, yet it remains to be ascertained how the species said to be 
so common in Lake Huron, compare with those of Lake Supei'ior, and 
with those in the other great lakes and the St. Lawrence itself. As 
for the Atlantic species, ascending the rivers of the United States 
west and south of Cape Cod, I know them to differ from those of the 
lakes, at least from those which I possess from Lake Superior. The 
number of species of this interesting family which occur in the United 
States is at all events far greater than would be supposed from an 
examination of the published records. Upon close comparison of the 
specimens in my collection from different parts of the country, and 
in different museums, as those of the Natural History Society of 
Boston, of Salem, of the Lyceum of New York, my assistant, Mr. 
Charles Girard, and myself have discovered several species not yet 
deseribed. For this comparison I was the better prepared as I had 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 267 

an opportunity in former years of studying almost all the European 
species in a fresh condition, during a prolonged visit in Vienna. 

AciPENSER L^vis, Agass. 

This species, one of the largest of the genus, is from the Pic. 
The length of the specimen, of which I possess the head and the 
fins, and which was in fresh condition when I examined it, was four 
feet six inches. The head, which is contained two and a half times in 
the whole length, is subcorneal and a little flattened below ; the upper 
surface forms an uniformly descending line from the occiput to the ex- 
tremity of the snout, somewhat elliptical beyond the eyes, thus giving 
to the latter a slightly recurved appearance. From the level of the 
eyes to the centre of the skull, on the middle line of the head, there 
exists an equally elongated surface, more flattened, being the rudi- 
ment of a longitudinal dimple ; finally, on the occipital part of the skull 
we observe a small keel, where the two bones of this region begin 
to become convex, in order to pass to the cutting plates of the back. 

The surface of the bones which form the exterior covering of the 
head, is invested with small tubercles of enamel, of a circular form 
with obtuse summits. At first without apparent order, at the very 
centre of the bone they become linear, radiating to the circumfer- 
ence. Their greatest development occurs in the occipital region and 
on the transverse line level with the nostrils. On the middle part 
of the head these tubercles become thinner, and on the extremity of 
the snout they are reduced to a fine reticulation. The sides of the 
head have only a very few asperities. The only bone on which they ' 
are developed is the operculum, and it is only in its posterior half 
that they radiate from the centre towards the margin. A few rows 
only are directed towards the upper part of the head. The other 
bones constituting the opercular apparatus are covered with a 
membrane finely roughed at the surface. The bones placed at 
a small distance behind the eye and limiting the anterior margin of 
the branchial cavity, bear a few blunt tubercles irregularly dis- 
tributed on their surface. The branchiostegal membrane is naked 
and smooth, attached by a thin shred to the posterior part of the 
operculum, and passes before the pectoral fin, to which it is con- 



268 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

tiguous ; beyond this it dilates, in order to shut the branchial cavity 
at the lower part of the head, forming a very open curved line ; 
finally it terminates at a small distance from the mouth. The eyes 
are at a distance of three and six-eighths inches from the end of the 
snout. Their form is subcircular, their pupil transversely cleft. 
Their immediate covering is a smooth membrane, which continues 
below to the anterior extremity, where it becomes reticulated, but 
without any appearance of the smallest plate on its surface. At the 
anterior and upper part of the eye is a small protuberance projecting 
over the depression in which the nostrils are situated. These latter 
open at the surface by two orifices on each side. The one of an 
elliptical form with a free opening, occupies a prominent position, so 
that it would be observed from both sides of the head, looking at it 
from above. The other, a larger one, has the form of a crescent, with 
its convexity turned towards the eye, and placed a little obliquely 
on the vertical line, extending below the lower line of the eye for 
two-thirds of its length. 

The lower portion of the head appears as a flat surface rising 
msensibly from the anterior margin of the mouth to the extremity of 
the snout. This latter rises gradually in an oblique hne, which begins 
in front of the barbels. The middle line is convex, the margins are 
inclined. The barbels, four in number, are situated in pairs on both 
sides. The two pairs are a little more distant from each other than 
the two barbels of the right and left side. Their length is nearly 
the same, of about two inches : their form subconical, growing thinner 
at their extremity. Behind the barbels we notice a subquadrangular 
depression in which their base is concealed when they bend back- 
wards. The mouth is situated on the anterior half of the lower 
part, in a transversal notch ; it extends from one side of the head 
to the other, the posterior margin being almost straight, the anterior 
having an elliptical outline on the middle line. A thick membrane, 
with a glandular and undulating surface, surrounds the jaws, leav- 
ing the symphysis of the lower jaw free. Both extremities are 
attached to the anterior third part of both lower maxillary bones, 
sending a small membranous expansion towards the symphysis, tak- 
ing afterwards the direction towards the angles of the mouth. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 269 

Here the membrane is thickened considerably, and continues so on 
the whole circumference of the upper jaw, following its outlines. 

The mouth is protractile, and when projected outwards carries 
with it the surrounding membrane. The jaws are Aveak, both max- 
illary branches of the upper and lower jaw uniting by means of a 
tendinous membrane. The extremity of the tongue is round, cov- 
ered with a thick membrane, with a wrinkled surface perforated with 
small mucous holes. 

A thick layer of mucosity covers the surface of the head. This 
mucosity is secreted by the crypts of the skin ; these are especially 
very conspicuous on the space situated between the mouth and the 
snout, and on the upper side of the latter. They have the appear- 
ance of irregular meshes excavated in the skin, at the bottom of 
which we distinguish, by means of a magnifying glass, the crypts 
which line its surface. 

The body is of a regular form, diminishing insensibly from the 
anterior side backwards to the dorsal and anal fins, behind which it 
decreases rapidly towards the tail. This latter goes on tapering, then 
turns up obliquely, arching itself slightly over the lower lobe of the 
caudal. The surface of this caudal prolongation is covered with 
small elongated escutcheons, which become the more slender the 
more they rise along tlie caudal arch. They begin above the last 
escutcheon of the lateral row, much resembling the scales of the tail 
in Lepidosteus. 

The five rows of escutcheons on the sides of the body and along 
the back are scarcely visible, for they are hidden in the thickness 
of the body. 

The upper lobe of the caudal fin is composed in its whole extent 
of spinous rays, generally short and much inclined backwards, di- 
minishing in length the more they recede, and becoming rudimen- 
tary at their termination. The lower lobe, which gives to the cau- 
dal fin its general form, is exclusively composed of articulated and 
dichotomous rays. Those of the lower margin, much the largest 
and longest, remain undivided for two-thirds of their length ; they 
seem even to follow a direction peculiar to /them by a slightly con- 
cave line. The other rays grow more and more slender the more 
they rise above the lobe. They bifurcate first in the middle, and 



270 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

subsequently several times at a distance ■which varies for every 
ray. The lower lobe of the caudal extends not so far backwards as 
the upper. This latter has the form of a very open arch ; the 
lower is convex below. The line which joins both extremities is 
oblique within the upper half ; on the middle line it becomes con- 
cave, giving to the posterior margin of this fin the form of an 
irregular crescent. 

The dorsal fin is equally notched, forming a crescent on its termi- 
nal margin. All the rays which compose it are articulated. Those 
of the anterior margin, four times longer than those of the posterior, 
are arched backwards, undivided through their whole extent. The 
other rays dichotomize in the same manner as those of the caudal. 

The anal, longer than broad, is placed opposite and somewhat 
behind the dorsal. Its form is oblong, the inner and outer margins 
are rounded ; the posterior margin is straight, bending slightly 
inwards at the middle. The rays are similar to those of the dorsal. 
Those of the lower margin being the longest and remaining undivided 
through the whole extent ; those of the outer margin dichotomize 
like those of the dorsal. 

The ventral fins, as broad as they are long, are placed half way 
between the pectorals and the anal. Their posterior margin is almost 
square, the inner slightly sinuous, the outer rounded. The rays 
of the former dichotomize from their basis, those of the latter are 
undivided, like those of the other fins. 

The pectorals are of all fins the most developed. Their greatest 
length is seven inches and a half, and their breadth nearly four inches. 
Their form is a rather regular oval, setting aside their margin of inser- 
tion, which for two-thirds of its extent, from the outer margin, forms 
a straight line, directing itself obliquely towards the interior of the 
fin, whilst on the other third we observe a curve which brings the 
inner margin of the fin back upon itself. The rays of this margin 
become excessively slender, and remain undivided, like those of the 
outer margin. Those of the centre dichotomize according to the 
common rule. 

The number of rays in the fins is as follows : P. 39 to 40 ; D. 34 ; 
V. 26 ; A. 23. We may count as many as fifty to sixty on the lower 
lobe of the caudal, but they become indistinct beyond this number. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 271 

A character common to all fins is to have the outer margin sen- 
sibly thicker than the inner, which becomes thin and membranous. 
It is also in this outer margin that are found the largest rays, 
arched from within outwards, undivided in the greatest part of their 
extent, thus giving them a peculiar aspect. Small tubercles are 
observed in the outer third of the rays where they are most 
dichotomized. 

The color is of an uniform blackish brown, which extends to the 
fins ; it is a little less intense on the head, on the lower half of the 
sides below the middle hne it has a yellowish reflection. A pale white 
exists over the lower part of the head and the abdomen, as far as 
the under surface of the tail. 

This species resembles the A. riibicnndus of Lesueur, who describes 
two varieties of it, one found with the true ruhicundus in Lakes 
Erie and Ontario ; the other inhabiting the River Ohio. The 
descriptions which he has given of them do not enable us to recog- 
nize our species in either of these varieties. 

ACIPENSER CARBONARIUS, AgaSS. 

The general form of this species is rather thick and short than 
slender. The back is proportionally very elevated and very convex 
from the occiput to the anterior margin of the dorsal fin, from whence 
the body begins to grow considerably slender towards the tail, which 
last rises obliquely in order to form the higher arch of the caudal 
fin. (Plate 5, fig. 1.) 

The total length is one foot two inches and a half. The head is 
contained three times and a half in this length. The face, from the 
anterior margin of the branchial cavity to the extremity of the snout, 
equals the fourth part of the length of the trunk. The snout, from 
the orifices of the nostrils is contained seven times in this length. 

The head itself is depressed, flattened, uniformly inclined from 
the occiput beyond the nostrils, where the snout rises considerably, 
growing thinner on its margins, which circumstance gives it a convex 
form. Seen from above, its shape is that of an elongated triangle. 
The upper surface is quite uniform, having only one slight depression 
on the middle line, bordered by two small carinse of the frontal and 



272 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

pai'ietal bones. Small plates continue on the snout to its extremity, 
and are prolonged on the sides before the nostrils, but do not reach 
the lower circumference of the eye. All these bones are covered 
•with fine granules, disposed in linear rows in the direction of the 
head. The eyes occupy the upper region of the face. They are 
oval and have their largest diameter longitudinal. They are sur- 
rounded with a smooth zone on their lower circumference, limited 
above by the bones of the skull, and behind by a bone which sepa- 
rates them from the opercular apparatus and the branchial cavity. 
Another bone, Avliich is triangular, being the continuation of the 
preceding, limits the posterior margin of the face and completes the 
anterior margin of the branchial cavity. The nostrils, situated in a 
depression which is reserved for them before the eyes, open, as is 
common, at the surface, by two holes pierced laterally, of which the 
upper, the smallest, is subcircular and free, the lower oblong, vertical 
and protected by a small membrane at its anterior margin. The small 
plates which cover the snout reach not so far as the bone of the 
lower angle of the face. The opercular bone is covered with these 
fine granules disposed in striae radiating from the centre. The 
membrane which invests it and which shuts the respiratory opening 
in front, is covered with a fine rasp, which continues on the sides 
of the head to the angle of the mouth. The branchiostegal mem- 
brane proper is naked and very thin. It surrounds the opercular 
bone from the upper margin of the branchial cavity, and is prolonged 
and becomes wider a little above the branchial opening behind the 
pectoral fins and beneath the head. 

The inferior surface of the head is level, with the snout a little 
raised. The mouth opens in a depression behind the eyes. Its 
general form is the same as in the A. Icevis, (see pi. 5, f. 2. ;) 
it is protractile as in this latter, but the membranous fold which 
surrounds the jaws, is smooth on its whole anterior circumference, 
where it appears only as a wrinkle surrounding the jaw. It thickens 
at the angles of the mouth and terminates in a flattened flap, of 
glandular appearance, on the third quarter of the extent of the lower 
jaw, leaving the symphysis bare. The palate and the tongue have 
sinuous and transverse wrinkles on their surface. 

Four thread-like barbels half an inch long, are placed mid-waj 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 273 

between the mouth and the termination of the snout, a little nearer 
however to the mouth. On this face, though generally flattened, we 
may observe a median longitudinal swelling, having on each side a 
depression with widened margins. This skin is bare, although cov- 
ered upon its surface with a net of irregular meshes in which we 
observe small holes which secrete the mucosity, as in A. Icevis. 

The escutcheons of the dorsal row are twelve in number, well de- 
veloped, and a rudimentary thirteenth applied to the anterior margin 
of the dorsal. They are so near to one another that some are even 
slightly imbricated. Their general form is heart-shaped, broader 
than long, the two sides limited by a regular denticulated curved 
line, rising abruptly so as to form a very sharp median carina, 
terminated at the two posterior thirds in a hook, whose point is 
turned backwards. Their surface is covered with radiating lines, 
owing to the linear arrangement of their tubercles, which are exces- 
sively small, and acute. On the space between the posterior mar- 
gin of the dorsal and the origin of the caudal we observe three 
small plates. The largest is situated on the side of the dorsal, the 
two smaller follow immediately and are arranged in pairs. Their 
surface is equally covered with small acute tubercles, but the cen 
tre is scarcely indicated by a larger tubercle, whence the others 
radiate. (See pi. 5, fig. 3.) 

The lateral escutcheons are from thirty-two to thirty-three in num- 
ber, of irregular oblong form, with the two sides retracted. The 
anterior margin is concave, the posterior convex, slightly notched 
in the middle. The median carina is but slightly prominent, the 
sides of course but little inclined ; the hook which rises above it is 
slightly curved backwards ; sometimes it is bifurcated at its point. 
The surface, as usual, is covered with small granules in radiating 
rows. Their position in relation to the body is oblique from before 
backwards. They are less serrated than those of the back, and di- 
minish gradually as they approach the tail. 

The escutcheons of the abdominal region, from ^even to eight in 
number, extending over the spaee contained between the posterior 
margin of the pectoral and the anterior margin of the ventral 
fins, resemble much in their general outlines those of the back. 
Their form is perhaps more rounded, though they do not form a 



274 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

regular circle. They are quite as much inclined, and their hooks 
axe stronger, and more arched at the point. The radiating striae 
are also more visible. 

In front of this double row of escutcheons and as if forming their 
immediate continuation on the inner side of the pectoral fins, and 
in front of them, we observe a subtriangular bone, the anterior 
side of which is concave, bordering the branchial opening beneath. 
These two bones are contiguous on their anterior angle, and form 
by their reunion a convex curved line along the sides of the mouth, 
to which the branchiostegal membrane is attached. A prominent 
carina, but unprovided with hooks, extends along the median line 
from the posterior angle. A single wrinkle indicates on the middle 
of the anterior angle the rudiment of a carina. The strice radiate 
from those two centres. The bone of the anterior part of the pecto- 
rals and upon which these fins articulate, is small and hidden under 
the skin. 

An odd elliptical escutcheon with regular outlines is situated in the 
middle of the space between the anus and the anal fin. It has a slight 
median carina, over which projects an elliptical hook. A rudiment 
of an escutcheon leans towards the anterior margin of the anal. 

The anus opens in a small depression immediately behind the 
ventrals, at a distance of about two-thirds of an inch from their pos- 
terior margin, and one inch and three-sixteenths from the anterior 
margin of the anal. It is small and surrounded by a cutaneous 
membrane, bilobed on the posterior side. 

The skin over the whole space which the escutcheons do not 
cover is rough to the touch. Small tubercles with acute points 
cover uniformly its surface, being every where of equal size 
and at an equal distance from each other. • On the terminal arch 
of the tail they become lengthened and flattened, and invest 
the whole space like scales. 

The fins are generally small ; the dorsal, broader than it is 
high, is triangular with the upper margin concave. It is com- 
posed exclusively of soft rays, with the exception of a fulcrum 
situated on its anterior margin. The rays are articulated and 
subdivided only at their extremity. 

The upper lobe of the caudal is formed of small bony rays, short 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 275 

and strongly inclined backwards, not reaching the extremity of 
the fin. The rays of the lower lobe do not differ from those of 
the dorsal. They bifurcate Hke these latter, but at the extremity 
only. The posterior margin of this lobe is notched, in the form 
of a crescent and elongated in its upper part, along the arch of 
the tail. The notch is not deep in the lower part. 

The anal is opposite to the dorsal, beyond which it extends 
backwards. It is narrow, elongated, almost twice as high as it is 
broad. The inner and outer margins are almost straight, the 
terminal oblique margin slightly curved. The rays are slender, 
bifurcated at their extremity only. 

The ventrals, similar in their form to the anal, are situated at 
the posterior third of the body. Their structure has nothing that 
distinguishes them from the anal. 

The pectorals are as in the A. loevis the largest of all the fins. 
Their form is lengthened, the terminal margin is obliquely rounded, 
and passes to the inner margin by an arch. The anterior and outer 
margin bears a spinous ray, bent beyond its insertion, and curving 
inwards a little before the point. It does not reach the extremity 
of the fin. It is flattened in the horizontal diameter of the fin ; 
its basis is three-sixteenths of an inch broad and terminates in an 
obtuse point, in the margin of the fin. The surface is striated longi- 
tudinally on both surfaces, alternating with small furrows and 
wrinkles. The soft rays are as in the other fins. 

The general color is of a yellowish brown on the upper half 
of the body, the yellow growing purer on the sides and beneath 
the belly. A large spot of an intense black, and an elongated 
quadrangular form occupies, on the middle of the back, the space 
between the dorsal and lateral series of shields. A second pair 
of large spots of the same color occupies the same position on 
the sides of the dorsal fin, on which they even encroach a little. 
Other small spots are distributed over the sides of the fish 
from the opercular apparatus (itself included) to the tail and 
the fins, giving thus to the whole fish a dotted appearance. 

P. 1, 43-35 ; V. 26-28 ; D. 36 ; A. 25-28. C. lower lobe 
more than sixty. 



276 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

The only specimen of this species which is in my possession 
was found at Michipicotin on the north-east shore of Lake Superior. 

Though this species is very similar in its general characters to 
the Acipenser macidosus Lesueur, from the Ohio, we have not, 
however, been able to identify it. The description which this au- 
thor gives of his species is so vague that he does not even tell 
us the form of the fins. The formula of their rays is far from 
corresponding with that of our species. Nor is the abdominal sei'ies 
of plates the same ; those of the sides and back seem to resemble 
it more closely. The snout is also more slender; but had not 
Lesueur mentioned that the species which he saw is of small size, 
we might have supposed that our specimen was the young, which 
have generally the snout more pointed than full-grown specimens. 

Acipenser rhynch^us, Agass. 

This species is very similar to the preceding ; it differs from 
it only in a few characters which we shall here enumerate briefly. 
The bod}^ is more slender and diminishes less abruptly towards 
the caudal region. The curve of the back is more elliptical; 
slightly concave at a small distance behind the head, where the 
third escutcheon is sensibly smaller. The head is contained about 
four times in the whole length. The face, from the anterior 
margin of the branchial cavity, forms the fifth part of the length 
of the trunk, and the snout from the nostrils is in the propor- 
tions of one to five. The whole length of the fish is nearly twenty- 
three inches. The head is slender, elongated, proportionally nar- 
row ; its upper surface is very sloping, forming a line feebly broken 
at the level of the nostrils. A sinus quite deep, widened on 
both sides, extends along the median line of the skull ; narrow 
at the top, it widens before it disappears upon the snout. The 
frontal and parietal bones are carinated in their middle. The 
snout is pointed, but truncated. It is completely covered with 
small plates which pass before the nostrils and go to join again 
the bone which terminates the lower and posterior angle of the 
face. The nostrils open in a bare space which is situated under 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 277 

the eye. Their form and dbection are not quite the same as in 
the preceding species. 

The shields of the dorsal series are sixteen in number, cordi- 
form as in the preceding species, but longer than they are broad, 
approaching however more to a circle. The right and left mar- 
gins are equally denticulated. An odd plate of medium size is 
situated behind the dorsal, and behind this latter a pair of much 
smaller plates fill up the remainder of the space to the anterior mar- 
gin of the caudal. Both are carinated and provided with a hook. 

The lateral series consists of thirty-five pairs of plates, elon- 
gated, narrow, irregularly triangular, the most acute point directed 
upwards, much resembling those of the preceding species. 

The abdominal series has from eight to nine plates, generally 
more irregular, more strongly denticulated, with a strong carina 
and prominent hook. 

The articular bone of the pectoral fin is stronger and more 
widened. The pectoral fins themselves are longer and more 
rounded on their posterior margin. The anal is also more narrow. 
The other fins resemble each other excepting the caudal, which 
seems to be less furcated. We have not been able to make a 
fuller comparison of the two species, having had only a dried speci- 
men of the latter in our possession. The following formula of the 
rays is only an approximation, as the fins are somewhat defective. 

P. I, 32 or 33 ; V. 2G ; D. 3i ; A. 25. C. lower lobe one 
hundred and more. 

Very distinct fulcra exist along the anterior margin of all the 
fins, with the exception of the pectorals. « 

Habitat, Sault St. Mary. 

AciPENSER RuPERTiANUS, Richardson. 

This species, which we did not find in our excursion, is men- 
tioned here only incidentally, for comparison with those which we 
have described. Richardson has figured and described it in his 
Fauna Boreali-Americana. Our comparisons have been made 
upon a skin from Sault St. Mary, for which I am indebted to 
Mr. McLeed. 



278 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Its head is thicker than it is long, forming one-seventh of the 
whole length, which is twenty inches ; the snout is covered with dis- 
tinct small plates upon its surface, though it is also granulated. The 
frontal sinus is broader than deep, and extends over that part of the 
snout which is contiguous to the skull. The dorsal plates, twelve or 
thirteen in number, are elliptical ; the lateral series number twenty- 
five or twenty-seven, and resemble somewhat those of the preceding 
species. The abdominal series have eight or nine plates, longer 
than broad, whilst the contrary is the case in the A. rhpichceus, from 
the Sault St. Mary. Their circumference is also less. The fins 
which we have been able to compare show but shght difierences 
in the two species. 

SiLURIDiE. 

Whenever we are induced to consider organized beings in 
their connection rather than by themselves, we perceive at once 
differences between them, which throw more light upon the laws 
that regulate their structure, than the most minute investigation of 
isolated facts. The Siluridae are fishes which it is difficult to combine 
with any other group, unless by far-fetched considerations, and afford 
a striking example of the importance of general considerations in the 
special study of zoology. 

Speaking of the sturgeons above, I have already mentioned their 
affinity to the Goniodonts. It is now a matter of great importance to 
examine upon what this relation rests, for the systematic position 
assigned to thatrfamily is also decisive for the Siluridne, which are 
very closely allied with the Goniodonts. Indeed, Goniodonts and 
Siluridoe may be united into one family with almost as much pro- 
priety as they can be separated, and wherever one of these groups is 
placed, in a general classification of fishes, the other must follow. 
That sturgeons belong to the order of Ganoids is now fully ascer- 
tained ; but whether the affinity of Goniodonts and sturgeons is suf- 
ficient to connect the SiluridjB, or whether Siluridse and Goniodonts 
are to continue in some connection or other with the many fam- 
ilies of Abdominales, with which they have hitherto been combined, 
remains to be seen. That the position of the ventrals is not sufficient 



FISHES OP LAEE SUPERIOR. 279 

to settle this question is plain, as soon as we consider the position of 
those fins in the Ganoids, in which they are also placed at the middle of 
the abdomen. The scales which are wanting in most Siluridge, would 
apparently seem, at first sight, to afibrd little information ; let us how- 
ever remember that there are some genera among Siluridge, such as 
Callichthys and Doras, in which scales of a very peculiar character 
exist, and that several other genera have large bony escutcheons 
upon their neck. Now these bony plates and scales have the same 
structure as the enameled scales of the sturgeons, and their position 
in Doras reminds us strongly of the lateral shields of sturgeons ; so 
much so, that but for the form of the body, we might be led to con- 
sider these fishes as closely related. And really, this affinity is not 
altogether superficial ; the development of the jaws and opercular 
bones is so imperfect, as to show little analogy to the structui'e of 
those parts in the common Abdominales, whilst it agrees rather closely 
to that of the sturgeons. The position of the mouth in Ldricaria, 
below the snout, is another feature which connects the Goniodonts 
and sturgeons, and the genus Scaphirhynchus may be considered as 
forming the most natural link between the two families. Again, 
Goniodonts have pseudobranchise and a thick membrane encircling 
the mouth, which constitute so many more characters connecting them 
with the sturgeons ; although these points are of less value than those 
already mentioned. I may add, also, that the brain of Siluridre bears 
a stronger resemblance to that of the sturgeons, than to that of any 
of the Abdominales ; so that I consider myself justified in referring 
the families of Goniodonts and Siluridae to the order of Ganoids, 
where they may stand as aberrant famiUes, rather than among the 
other great divisions of the class of fishes. 

PiMELODUS. 

The genus Pimelodus, as characterized by Prof. Valenciennes, in 
the Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, seems to me to contain several 
distinct types, which might with great propriety be considered as 
distinct genera, characterized by their peculiar teeth, the arrange- 
ment of their barbels, and the respective position and extent of their 
dorsal and anal fins, as well as the form of their caudal. But as the 



280 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

collections now at my command do not contain sufficient materials to 
limit precisely those genera, I shall only mention that such a revision 
seems desirable, since, as far as I can now judge, the group of 
which P. catiis may be considered as the type, should constitute a 
first genus, and retain the name of Pimelodus, and that new names 
should be framed for the other groups of species, of which P. cyclo- 
pum, albidus, ctenodus, &c., may be considered as the respective 
types. ^ ^ . 

If we now admit the generic sections, which I propose for 
the numerous species of Pimelodus, their study will be by this 
very fact much simplified ; for when we have once the group to 
which our species belongs, its comparison with the others will be 
very easy. Now we have already said that the first group, that 
which is to retain the name of Pimelodus, will contain the P. 
Catus as its type, and in addition to it the P. jyunctulatus Cuv. and 
Val., P. coenosus and borealis of Richardson, and P. albidus, 
nebulosus and ceneus of Lesueur, besides a new species from Lake 
Superior, to be described below. All authors have not admitted 
P. nebulosus as a species ; the natural history of P. albidus and 
ceneus leaves also much to be desired, so it is also Avith P. punctu- 
latus. So that we are still in doubt about the real number of species 
which will compose the genus Pimelodus proper. The Phnelodus 
Catus, which is perhaps the best known, differs considerably from 
our northern species, so that we need hardlj* mention the differences ; 
but P. nebulosus and P. albidus seem to be very closely allied to 
P. Catus, if we judge by the description which we have before us. 
The P. mneus Avould come near P. ptunctulatus-, which in its turn 
would remind us of P. Catus. Hence we may see how important 
it may be to submit anew these species to a close examination, to study 
them each in its locality and by minute anatomical as well as 
zoological investigation, to ascertain the value of their characters. 

For the present, however, I cannot undertake this comparative 
study from want of sufficient materials, but I shall attempt to 
describe the species we brought from Lake Superior, and com- 
pare it with P. coenosus and borealis of Richardson, from which, 
though allied to them, it seems however to differ specifically. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 281 



PiMELoDus Felis, Agass. 

The general form is that of most species of the genus, neither 
thick, nor elongated. The abdomen is prominent in the space 
contained between the branchiostegal apparatus and the ventrals. 
The curve of the back rises to the height of the dorsal, whence 
it slopes rapidly upon the head. The body is very compressed 
from behind the dorsal and ventral fins to the tail. It is com- 
pletely bare, with a punctulated appearance, caused by the aqui- 
ferous holes which open at the surface of the skin, and which 
are especially numerous on the anterior region and on the head. 
The lateral luie is straight, ascending from the middle of the 
caudal to the upper angle of the opercular apparatus. The head, 
from the occiput, forms the fifth part of the whole length, whilst 
from the posterior margin of the operculum to the end of the snout 
it constitutes only one fourth. The head is longer than it is broad, 
and forms a regular oval, truncated behind in the occipital region 
and elliptical in the anterior circumference. The mouth extends as 
far back as the eyes ; the lips surround it under the form of a fleshy, 
elastic swelling, in the middle of the jaws only ; but at their reunion 
with the angles of the mouth they grow thinner, widen and flatten, 
and form a kind of funnel, which enlarges, for a third at least, the 
opening of the mouth. The teeth are arranged like those of a 
card, and distributed irregularly upon the circumference of the 
jaws. They vary in length and size, but are all acute. On the 
lower jaw they extend much more backwards in the mouth than on 
the upper jaw, where they do not extend beyond the basis of inser- 
tion of the maxillary barbels. These latter, two inches long, reach to 
the posterior margin of the preoperculum. They follow the upper 
circumference of the cutaneous funnel at the angles of the mouth 
for the extent of six-eighths of an inch. Hard, horny and flattened 
at their basis, they grow gradually softer and more slender towards 
their termination. The nostrils are situated on the upper surface of 
the head, at a distance of half an inch from the end of the snout. 
Their opening, of oblong form, measures one-eighth of an inch in the 
direction of the greatest diameter. The barbels which arise from 

19 



282 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

their anterior margin, the smallest of the four pairs, have exactly 
the length of the space contained between them and the anterior 
extremity of the head. Thej are soft, flabby and rounded. The 
eyes, proportionally small and subcircular, are at a distance of one 
inch from the anterior margin of the head. Their diameter is five- 
sixteenths of an inch. The four barbels of the lower surface of the 
head are placed upon an arc of a circle within the branches of 
the jaw. The two internal ones are more distant from each other 
than the external ones. These latter are one and one-sixteenth 
inches long, whilst the former are only seven-eighths of an inch. 
They are soft upon their whole extent, like those of the nostrils, 
rounded and elongated. 

The opercular apparatus is almost completely hidden under the 
skin and the muscles ; a slight swelling indicates the inferoposterior 
margin of the operculum. As for the preoperculum, which forms the 
anterior outline of the apparatus, we can trace its whole margin, 
which is arched within, and upon which the branchiostegal mem- 
brane is fixed. The branchiostegal rays themselves are nine in 
number ; the first two, the most developed, are of about equal 
size, and follow the outline of the preoperculum, without being 
attached there otherwise than by the muscles which move them. 
All are flattened and concave on their outer surface. The humeral 
apophysis, which we perceive through the skin, is strong and robust. 
It extends two-thirds the length of the spine of the pectoral fins ; 
its outer margin is wrinkled. 

The dorsal fin is composed of a spinous and six soft rays. Its 
basis measures one and one-eighth inches, the spine is one and 
one-half inches long ; the rays of the centre, one and five-eighths 
inches. Hence the fin has a quadrilateral form from its in- 
sertion to the height of the spinous ray, terminated by an isosce- 
les triangle. The spinous ray itself is slender, slightly arched ; 
its posterior margin has neither furrows nor denticulations. At its 
upper third is implanted a rudiment of a soft ray which takes 
an oblique direction upwards. The adipose fin is of medium size, 
thick at its basis, thin upon its circumference, which extends a little 
beyond the posterior margin of the insertion of the anal. It is seven- 
eighths of an inch long. The caudal is subtruncate, almost concave. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 283 

It is composed of eighteen articulate, well-developed rays, measuring 
two inches along the margins and one and eleven-sixteenths inches in 
the middle of the fin, and of six raylets in the upper margin and 
ten in the lower margin, hidden in the thickness of the skin. The 
anal is high and rounded ; its insertion is two and a half inches 
long. It numbers twenty-two rays ; those of the centre are one 
and six-eighths inches high. The ventrals, one and three-sixteenths 
inches long, are fan-shaped and rounded on their circumference ; 
they have eight soft rays. The pectorals have almost the same 
form, though less rounded. They are composed of seven soft rays 
and one spinous, strong and robust, at whose inner side we remark 
denticulations, varying in their number and form, and extending 
only along the two upper thirds. The lower third has a carina with 
a sharp blade. The length of the soft rays is one and three-eighths 
inches ; the length of the spine one and three-sixteenths inches. 

The general formula of the rays is as follows : Br. 9 ; D. I. 6 ; 
C. 18: A. 22; V. 8; P. I. 7. 

Besides the differences in the number of the rays, as we may esti- 
mate by the numbers we have given above, this species differs farther 
from the P. ccenosus and horealis in the general form of the fins. 
Their position upon the body, relatively to each other, affords not less 
sensible differences when we compare the measures which Dr. Bich- 
ardson gives for his P. coenosiis, setting aside the difference of size 
of our specimen, which had two inches more for its whole length. 
Similar differences are remarked between our P. Felis and the P. 
horealis, though for this latter we have not been able to make our 
com})arisons upon positive numbers, the celebrated author having 
neglected to give the numbers of the rays of this species. The pro- 
portions and the dimensions of the head are also far from agreeing, 
being in the P. coenosiis two-ninths of the whole length, and in 
the P. borealis as broad as long, whilst we have seen, that in our 
species its length forms the fourth part of the whole length, and 
that besides, it is much longer than broad. The spinous ray of the 
dorsal is more feeble than in P. camosus, and, besides, unprovided 
with the deep groove in which the soft ray of this fin is lodged. The 
spinous ray of the anterior margin of the pectorals, which in P. 
borealis is unprovided with denticulations on its posterior margin, 



284 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

is, on the contrary, in our species, provided with such serratures as 
is the case in P. coenosus. 

Such are the principal features upon which the comparison may 
rest, while good figures are yet wanting. The differences which we 
have indicated, however shght they be, do not allow us to identify 
our species with the one or the other of those mentioned above. 
The comparison of original specimens would be necessary in order 
to fix in a sure manner the traits of resemblance, or the differential 
characters of each of them. 

Percopsis, Agass. 

In order fully to understand and perfectly to appreciate the char- 
acters of this genus, and the interest involved in its discovery, it is 
necessary to remember various relations of the different types of the 
whole class, which however do not constitute generic distinctions, 
although they bear upon the peculiarities of this new type. 

In the first place, it is a matter of no little importance that, 
among the fishes of former ages, we find every where types which dif- 
fer widely from the forms of our time, and that those forms are the 
more different, as they belong to older geological deposits. The 
differences are even so great, that out of the four orders of this class, 
there are only two which constitute the fauna of fishes in the older 
formations ; two orders, which in our day are comparatively re- 
duced, I mean the Placoids and Ganoids. Moreover, the types are 
peculiar in all epochs. For instance, the sharks of former days, espe- 
cially those of older epochs, resemble solely that curious genus of 
Port Jackson, New Holland, the Cestracion, which is so remarkable 
among the living fishes as to form a group by itself. The Ganoids, of 
which there are so remarkably few in the present creation, such as 
the gar-pike (Lepidosteus) of this continent, are not less peculiar, 
and in connection with those ancient Placoids, constitute the only rep- 
resentatives of the class of fishes throughout the earlier geological 
ages down to the deposits of the chalk, when new families of other 
orders, the Ctenoids and Cycloids, begin to make their appearance, 
preparatory as it were to the present development of that class, and 
are successively diversified with the modified adaptations of the whole 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOK. 285 

class. Now the genus Percopsis is as important to the understanding 
of the modern types of fishes as Lepidosteus and Cestracion are to 
the understanding of the ancient ones, as it combines characters which 
in our day are never found together in the same family of fishes, but 
which in more recent geological ages constituted a striking peculiar- 
ity of the whole class. My Percopsis is really such an old-fashioned 
fish, as it shows peculiarities which occur simultaneously ui the fossil 
fishes of the chalk epoch, which however soon diverge into distinct 
families in the tertiary period, never to be combined again. 

This ancient character of some of the American fishes agrees 
most remarkably with the peculiarity of the vegetation of this conti- 
nent, which, as I have shown on former occasions, resembles also 
the fossil plants of prior ages. 

The geographical range of these peculiar, old-fashioned beings is 
also very remarkable, they living in temperate, or rather cold climates, 
when their earlier representatives lived in warmer epochs. 

The most striking features of the fishes of the tertiary period and 
those of our time consist in their belonging to two groups of the class 
only ; one, the Ctenoids, with rough, combed scales, in which the re- 
spective representatives have also prominent serratures on prominent 
spines upon the head, in the operculum in particular, and in the fins ; 
the other, the Cycloids, smooth, with simple scales with an entire 
margin, in which some few types however have also spinous fins. 

Now my new genus, Percopsis, is just intermediate between 
Ctenoids and Cycloids ; it is, what an ichthyologist, at present, 
would scarcely think possible, a true intermediate type between 
Percoids and Salmonidae. 

The general form of this genus reminds us of the common perches, 
but it is easily distinguished from them, by the fact that its head and 
the opercular apparatus are smooth and unprovided with denticula- 
tions, as also by the presence of a small adipose fin, as in the salmons. 
The anterior dorsal is also a small fin, composed of soft branched ar- 
ticulated rays, as in the salmons. The ventral fins are placed at 
the middle of the abdominal cavity, as in the Abdominales in general. 
The scales, however, are truly serrated as in the Percoids, a struc- 
ture which, as far I know, does not occur in any of the Abdominales. 
The conformation of the mouth is also as in the perches, that is to 



286 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

say, the intevmaxillaries form alone the upper margui of the mouth, 
and the maxillaries stand behind as a second arch, but the vomer and 
pahxte are entirely destitute of teeth. 

This fish, of which I shall publish a full anatomy, should be consid- 
ered as the type of a distinct family, under the name of l^t'>'coj.)sides. 



Percopsis guttatus, Agass. 

PL I., fig. 1 and 2. 

This is a fish of small size and slender form, though the back is 
very much elevated. Its greatest elevation corresponds to the an- 
terior part of the dorsal fin, that is to say, a little nearer the end of 
the snout than the insertion of the caudal. The tail is proportionally 
elongated, a little compressed between the adipose fin and the basis 
of the caudal. The sides are compressed, and diminish gradually in 
thickness from th^ front backwards. The ventral line is less promi- 
nent than that of the back ; it rises more backwards of the anal, to 
concur in the contraction of the tail. The profile of the head, which 
is small and compressed like the sides, is regularly conical; the 
length of the head is contained three times in that of the body, set- 
ting aside the lobes of the caudal. 

The eyes are large and circular, situated near the upper margin 
of the face ; if a vertical line passed through their centre, it would 
divide the head into equal parts. The space which separates the 
anterior margin of the orbits from the end of the snout, is about half 
an inch. The nostrils open outwards b}^ a double opening, and are 
very near the eyes. One of these openings has the form of a cres- 
cent, whose convexity is turned towards the eye ; the other is small, 
subcircular and situated in the concave space of the preceding. 
(Fig. 2.) The mouth is small, and appears scarcely larger when 
opened ; the upper jaw extends beyond the lower, and is formed solely 
by the intermaxillaries, upon which we remark a narrow band of 
small, excessively fine teeth, arranged like the teeth of a card. The 
palate is entirely smooth. On the contrary the pharyngeans are 
covered with similar teeth still more slender, as also the ocsophagean 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 287 

shields. On the lower jaw there is a narrow land of t<;eth, like 
those of the internaaxillaries. The labials extend a little beyond the 
intermaxillary to form the angle of the mouth, which corresponds to 
a vertical line which would pass before the nasal openings. The 
suborbital bones are very much developed. They are four in number, 
intimately united, extending from the posterior and lower margin of 
the eye to the nostrils. The three first, much the smallest, occupy 
the lower circumference of the orbit ; the fourth, almost as large as 
the three others together, is the strongest and the most robust and 
protects the lower margin of the nostrils ; it sends out a prominent 
point to the space situated between these latter and the eye. 

The opercular apparatus is completely smooth, like the surface of 
the head itself. The posterior free margins of the bones which com- 
pose it, are destitute of any kind of spines or denticulation. The 
most developed, and at the same time the most robust of the bones 
of this apparatus, is the preoperculum, which occupies almost the 
whole width of the face. Its fonn is triangular ; the outer margin of 
its ascending branch is slightly concave ; the lower branch, the most 
developed, is straight and encircles the lower margin of the face. 
The operculum is fjuadrilateral, its four angles are prominent ; its 
upper, hinder and lower borders are notched or concave, its anterior 
margin Ls almost straight. The suboperculum, small, narrow, 
oblong, is lodged in the concavity of the lower margin of the opercu- 
lum. The interoperculum, which is a third longer than the suboj)er- 
culum and which it resembles in form, is entirely hidden under the 
lower branch of the preoperculum. The branchial openings are very 
large ; they continue to the middle of the lower surface of the head, 
"where they are almost contiguous. The branchiostegal membrane is 
supported by six curved rays ; the upper ones, which are the largest, 
are flattened. There are four branchial arches on whose inner iJorder 
we remark a double row of shields in relief, covered with email card- 
like teeth, as we observe on the pharyngeans. 

The disposition of the fins is in striking harmony with the form of 
the fish. The dorsal, which is the largest, is situated at the middle 
of the back. Its length equals the height of its anterior margin, 
being more than twice as high as its hinder margin. The upper 
margin is straight. There are twelve ravs. The two first are short 



288 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

and spinous, close together ; the third, or first of the soft and articu- 
lated rays, is the largest. These latter bifurcate at the middle of 
their height ; every bifurcation subdivides again at its extremity. A 
small adipose fin is situated at about equal distance between the pos- 
terior margin of the dorsal and the basis of the caudal. The caudal 
is furcated ; it has eighteen rays, of which the longest are subdivided 
three times at their terminal extremity. The anal is situated behind 
the dorsal. This is a small fin, higher than it is long, with regular 
and straight margins, composed of eight rays, of which the first, 
shorter and more slender than the other, is undivided. The second 
and eighth bifurcate only once, the five middle ones branch so far as 
to show divisions of the third order. The ventrals are placed per- 
pendicularly to the anterior margin of the dorsal, narrow at their 
basis ; they soon widen to become oval with a regularly rounded 
circumference. There are eight rays ; the four of the centre 
thrice subdivided, those of the margins twice only, the first being 
simple. The pectorals arise at a small distance from the branch- 
ial opening and occupy almost all the lower part of the body. 
They are elongated, oval, composed of twelve very slender thread- 
like rays, subdivided thrice at least at the centre of the fin, the first 
being simple. Its extremity reaches almost the middle of the dorsal. 

Br. 6 ; D. 2. 10 ; A. I, 7 ; C. 8, 18| ; V. 8 ; P. 12. 

The scales are large in proportion to the size of the fish. They 
are little imbricated and of about equal size on the whole surface of 
the body except under the throat, where they are a little smaller 
and subcircular. On the sides their height is greater than their 
breadth. The anterior margin is rounded ; their hinder margin 
forms a very obtuse angle, and under the microscope it exhibits a 
row of small needles, somewhat distant, and which seem to be im- 
planted in this margin instead of appearing as serratures. This 
type of scales comes near to that of my Corniger spinosus, and to 
some genera of the cretaceous epoch. The concentric striae are very 
distinct, but I could not perceive any radiating striae. 

The lateral line, nearer to the back than to the belly, extends 
from the upper angle of the operculum, arches slightly upwards 
towards the dorsal fin, and then descends again insensibly to the 
middle of the tail, to terminate at the centre of its peduncle. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 289 

The ground color is of a yellow, violaceous tint, much dark- 
er above the lateral line than below. The back is spread with 
blackish brown spots, sometimes disposed in two longitudinal rows, 
sometimes in three, however without great regularity. On the 
middle of the body extends a silvery ridge tapering slightly from the 
head to the basis of the caudal. It is not rare to see sometimes 
blackish spots encroach upon this bright band. The fins are uni- 
colored, and of a transparent whitish tint like that of the abdomen. 

We found this fish in great abundance at the Sault St. Mary, at 
Michipicotin and at Fort William. 

Percoids. 

Whenever we compare the fishes which occur in a given locality, 
we are struck with peculiar associations entirely different from those 
which we may find in other localities. Take the Bay of Massachu- 
setts, for instance, where we have sharks, skates, &c., &c., combined 
together in numeric proportions, and represented by species alto- 
gether difierent from those which occur on the shores of the Middle 
States or around Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico. Again, if we 
compare freshwater fishes, as they occur in any extensive hydro- 
graphic basin, for instance, those in the Canadian lakes, or in the Ohio 
and Mississippi, or those of the lakes and rivers of Europe, with the 
marine faunae, we find still more striking diflerences. Entire families 
common in the sea under the same latitudes have no representative 
in fresh water ; there are no sharks and no skates, no flounders, soles 
or turbots, no mackerels, no herrings, as permanent inhabitants of 
the freshwaters in the latitudes above mentioned ; so that a collec- 
tion of species from the freshwater or from the sea, even if all 
the species were to be new, could be recognized by an ichthyologist 
as derived either from the ocean or from some inland water. 
However difierent such associations of marine and freshwater 
species may be, there is nevertheless scarcely any family, whether 
generally marine or fluviatile, in which there is not some species 
living in the other element. There are some families again, 
in which the proportions between marine and fluviatile species are 



290 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

about equal, and there are still others in which the individuals of 
the same species are alternately at different seasons of the year either 
marine or fluviatile ; this is particularly the case with such as ascend 
from the sea into the rivers at the spawning season, to deposit their 
eggs in waters more genial to the growth of their young than those 
in which they are mainly to live when full-grown. 

Percoids belong to those families of which there are certain pro- 
portions of strictly freshwater, and certain proportions of strictly 
marine genera, the number of marine species being however much 
greater than that of the freshwater ones, and very few of the species 
having the power of enduring both the freshwater and the sea. 

That the family of Percoids, as it is now circumscribed, is in 
the main a most natural group, cannot be doubted, especially if 
we remove from it such genera as Trachinus, Uranoscopus, Sphy- 
rsena and a few others ; there remains however a question, not to be 
decided here, how far Sparoids and Sciaenoids should be considered 
as distinct. Indeed, at different times, in two editions of the same 
work, Cuvier in his Animal Kingdom has successively associated 
them in one great family, and divided them into two distinct groups. 
The fact is that these fishes are closely related, and it is for future 
investigations to determine the value of those characters upon 
which the distinction rests, which consists only in the serrature of the 
opercular apparatus, the presence or absence of teeth upon the 
palatine bones, and the degree of development of the so-called 
mucous canals in the head, characters which have not even been 
strictly adhered to in the arrangement of individual genera. 

Whatever may be their closer or more remote affinities, the 
Percoids of the Canadian lakes, as well as those of the other fresh 
waters of North America, are much more diversified than those of 
the freshwaters under similar latitudes in the Old World. This 
is not the case with Lake Superior itself, for, on the contrary, that 
lake furnishes but few true Percoids ; but the other great lakes teem 
with a variety of genera and species of that family, which among 
themselves, as well as with reference to the common type of the 
whole family, differ much more from the Percoids than those of 
Europe ; I need only mention the genera Pomotis, Centrarchus, 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 291 

and Huro or Grystes, which all occur in the lower lakes, to show 
that this is the case ; and at the same time to indicate the great dif- 
ference there is between the fishes of the upper lakes and those of 
the lower. 

A comparative list of the Percoids of the two regions will show 
better than words, that notwithstanding the free passage there is 
between all these waters, notwithstanding the great similarity 
between the waters themselves, there is an organic difference 
between the ichthyological faunae of the two regions. 

Lower Lakes. ' Lake Superior. 

Centrarchus seneus. 

Pomotis vulgaris. 

Huro nigricans. 

Grystes striatus. 

Perca flavescens. Perca flavesc'ens. 

Lucioperca americana. Lucioperca americana. 

This list shows not only the great difference there is between the 
fishes of the upper and lower lakes, but also how closely the ichthy- 
ological fauna of Lake Superior resembles that of northern Europe, 
where the same genera of Percoids have representatives as in the 
north of this continent, a fact which goes farther to show how much 
more uniform the fauna of the north is than even the fauna of the 
temperate zone. 

Perca flavescens, Cuv. 

Perca flavescens Cuv. R. Anim. 1817, II., 133. — Cuv. et Vol. 

H. N. Poiss. 1828; II., ^(]. — Bichards. Fn. Bor. Amer. 1836, 

III., p. 1., PI. 74. — Storer Rep. 1839, p. 5. — Ayres Bost. Journ. 

Nat. Hist. 1842, IV. im. — Dekay N. York Fauna, 1824, 

p. 3. PI. I., f. 1. 
BoDiANUS FLAVESCENS Mitcli. Tr. Lit. Phil. Soc. N. Y. 1815, I., 

i21.—Kirtl. Rep. Zool. Ohio, p. 169-190. 
MoRONE FLAVESCENS Mitch. Rep. Fish. N. l^ork. 
Perca acuta Cuv. et Val. H. N. Poiss. 1828, II., 49, PI. 10. 

liieJiards. Fn. Bor. Amer. 1836, III., p. 4. — Dekay N. Y. 

Fauna 1842, p. 6, PI. 68, f. 222. 



LAKE SUPEKIOR. 

Perca granulata Cuv. et Val Hist. N. Polss. 1828, II., 48, PL 9. 

Jarcl Nat. Libr., I., 92, PI. l.—Dekay N. Y. Fauna. 1842., 

p. 5, PI. 48, f. 220. —ZmsL Cat. Fish. Conn. 
Perca serratogranulata Cuv. et Val. H. N. Poiss. 1828, II., 

Al.— Griff, in Cuv. An. K. X., PI. 39, f. l. — Dehay N. Y. 

Fauna. 1842, p. 5, PL 22, f. 64. 
Perca gracilis Cuv. et Val. H. N. Poiss. 1828, II., 50.— BicJiards. 

Fn. Bor. Amer. 1836, III., ^. — Dekay N. Y. Fauna, 1842. p. 6. 

Closely resembling the European species, the yellow pei'ch of 
America differs however considerably from it, so that no naturalist 
after Cuvier, who first distinguished them from each other, has ever 
thought to identify them. Its several varieties, described first under 
particular names, seemed then to constitute species quite as distinct 
from each other as the Perca flavescens is from the Perca fluvi- 
atilis. But at that epoch, when the principle of the constancy or per- 
manence of species had just been placed upon an anatomical foun- 
dation, naturalists for a time lost sight of this other fact, that the 
species common to a fauna are subject to individual variations which 
run over the whole range of the species. To study these changes, 
to bring back every variation to its true type, to trace the circle of 
the species through so many oscillations, was a task whose results 
could not be anticipated. The principle of the permanence of 
species has remained in our science as a well-ascertained fact, but 
naturalists have found that many which had been distinguished 
as species had to be cancelled as soon as their characters were better 
understood. Thus, in a series of more than forty individuals of 
the yellow perch of America, we can no longer trace the limits of 
separation between the Perca granulata., serratogranulata^ acuta 
and gracilis, which all belong as mere varieties to the P. flavescens, 
as Dr. Storer has already determined. A more pointed snout, a 
more slender form, a more wrinkled head, more marked wrinkles 
on the operculum, and the denticulation of the opercular bones, 
are not constant characters, any more than the color, or the number 
of the transverse bands, which vary with the age of the individual. 

We have examined perches from the Sault St. Mary, from Fort 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 

William, from the Pic, and from Lake Huron ; we have compared 
them with specimens from Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsyl- 
vania ; we have compared again and again all their different charac- 
ters, and we have seen that the same variations occur in all these 
supposed species. No difference in the form and relative position 
of the fins could be noticed ; the same arrangement and aspect of 
the scales characterizes them all. The comparison which we have 
thus been enabled to make of these different varieties confirms their 
specific identity. No appreciable difference exists ; there are the 
same crests, the same cavities and sinuosities of the bones of the 
head, and the same proportions between their different parts. 

POMOTIS VULGARIS, Cuv. et Val. 

PoMOTis VULGARIS Cuv. et Vol. H. N. Poiss. III., 91, PI. 49; — 
VII., mL — Richards, Fn. Bor. Amer. HI., 24, PI. "IQ. — Storer 
Rep. 1839, p. 11. — Dekay N. Y. Fauna 1842, p. 31, PI. 51, 
f. 166. 

I have been able to secure only a few specimens of this species 
from Lake Huron, about four inches long. By means of comparisons 
which I have made of specimens from Massachusetts, New York, 
and Pennsylvania, I have nevertheless been able to ascertain its 
identity. For more ample details upon this fish I refer to the works 
quoted above, in which the species is described and figured. I must 
however remark that I have only mentioned in the synonymy those 
authors with whose species there remains no doubt in my mind, 
since I am satisfied that the so-called Pomotis vulgaris of the South- 
ern States is not the same species. In order to avoid all confusion, 
I have left out those synonyms which I was not able to verify di- 
rectly, quoting only authors who have given minute characters and 
good figures. 

The Pomotis vulgaris has been quoted as found in almost the 
whole extent of the United States. We are sure that it inhabits 
the Great Canadian Lakes, and the Northern and Central States 
of the Union. We do not know its western limit, though it is 
quoted as found in Ohio. Our specimens are from Lake Huron. 



294 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



LUCIOPERCA AMERICANA, CuV. et Val. 

LucioPERCA AMERICANA Ouv. et Vol. H. N, Poiss. II., 122, PI. 
16. — Richards. Fn. Bor. Amer. III., 10. — Bekay N. Y. Fauna, 
p. 17. PL 50, f. 153. — Kirtl. Rep. Zool. Ohio, p. 190. — 
Bost. Journ. K H. IV., 237, PL 9, f. 2.— Thomps. N. H. 
Verm. 1842, 130 ^g. — Stover Sjnops. 1846, p. 24. 

This fish has about the same geographical distribution as the 
J^erca flavescens northward, but it does not extend so far south. It 
occurs however in all the great Canadian lakes, and throughout the 
State of New York and parts of Ohio. It remains still to be 
ascertained, whether the Okow or Hornfiah* belongs or not to the 
same species. 

I do not believe that the L. canadensis of Hamilton Smith is 
even specifically distinct from the L. americana, though its author 
is disposed to view it as a new generic type, because of the pres- 
ence of five spines on the margin of the operculum, and of the 
absence of denticulations on the bones of this apparatus. I am 
satisfied that these opercular spines lose much of their value in this 
genus. Indeed in two specimens of L. ameficana which I pro- 
cured about Lake Superior, I have seen that one of them had 
two small points on the hinder margin of the operculum of the left 
side only, whilst there was no trace on the right side. The hinder 
point of the operculum was itself very acute and resembled a third 
spine a little more robust than the two others. The specimen 
measured thirteen inches. In a specimen from Lake Michigan, 
twenty-two inches long, for which I am indebted to Samuel C. 
Clarke, Esq., of Chicago, the operculum of the left side has equally 
two spines on its hinder margin, and two very near each other on 
its upper angle. On the right side there is a single spine observa- 
ble, but more robust, thougli very short like the others, and on the 
upper angle two of equal development. 

As for the other bones of the opercular apparatus, the following 
is what we have observed in other specimens from Lake Superior, as 

* Richards. Fn. Bor. Amer. III., 14. 



FISHES OP LAKE SUPERIOR, 295 

also in those of Michigan : the preoperculum is denticulated on its 
whole circumference ; the interoperculum and the suboperculum are 
equally crenulated or denticulated towards their union, upon the 
third part at least of their extent. The lower margin of the sub- 
operculum is undulated. The suprascapular bone has fine serra- 
tures ; the scapular and the humeral are entire. According to Dr. 
Richardson the crenatures of the margin of the interoperculum 
are scarcely perceptible, and the suboperculum smooth and straight. 
The suprascapular should be smooth, like the scapular and humeral, 
whilst the figure of the Histoire Naturelle des Poissons represents 
these three latter bones as serrated. This shows great variations in 
these parts. 

The following is the formula for the rays of the fins, as we 
counted them in our specimens : 

Br. 7 ; D. XIV-II, 19 ; A. II, 13 ; C. 5, L, 8, 7, 1., 4 ; V. I., 
5 ; P. 15. 

When this fish is young, until it reaches a length of three to four 
inches, the head resembles still more that of the pike than when full- 
grown, the snout being then very depressed ; but the teeth are all 
uniform. However, even at this epoch, the whole of its physiog- 
nomy reminds us so much of the species described above that we 
could not hesitate an instant for its determination. The black mar- 
blings stand out more distinctly from the ground of the color than 
in the full-grown ; they unite in groups and constitute irregular and 
vertical zones. Dr. Dekay's Lucioperca grisea is also founded upon 
young specimens of the common pike-perch. 

Grystes fasciatus, Agass. 

CiCHLA FASCiATA Lesu. Joum. Ac. N. Sc. Philad. 1822, II., 
21Q. — Richards. Fn. Bor. Amer. 1836, III., 23. 

CiciiLA MINIMA and Ohioensis Lesu. 1. c. pp. 218 and 220. 

Centrarchus fasciatus Kirtl. Best. Journ. N, H, 1845, v. 28. 
PI. 9, f. 1. 

Centrarchus obscurus Bekay N. Y. Fauna 1842, 30, PI. 1, 
f. 48. 



296 LAKE SUPEKIOR. 

This species is very closely allied to the G-rystes salmoides of the 
Southern States,* from which it is however distinguished by the 
profile of the more raised back, and of course by a broader body. 
The surface of the skull is uniformly rounded and not depressed as 
as in Cr. salmoides. The proportions of the head compared with 
the body are the same as in this latter, but the mouth is less opened 
and the shorter labials do not reach a vertical line drawn across the 
hinder margin of the orbits, whilst they exceed such a line in Gr. 
salmoides. The teeth are arranged like cards, and are similar in 
both species. 

The fins upon the whole seem to be cut on the same pattern as in 
G. salmoides, but when we examine them attentively we see that 
they are all stabbed like the body itself, the ventrals and pectorals 
shorter and more widened, the dorsal and anal lower. As for the 
other details of their structure they are about the same, as we may 
see from the following formula. 

Br. 6 ; D. X. 14 ; A. Ill, 10 ; C. 7, I, 8, 7, 1, 6 ; V. 1, 5 ; 
P. 16. 

The scales are a little smaller, but of the same form as in G. 
salmoides; the radiating striae are perhaps less marked. They 
cover the opercular apparatus and the cheeks, but at this latter 
place their smaller size is quite remarkable ; this latter character 
is very striking when we compare both species. 

Our specimens are from Lake Huron ; one of them measures 
twelve inches, and the other seven. I have also received two speci- 
mens from Lake Michigan, through the care of Mr. Samuel C. 
Clarke, the largest of which measures eighteen inches. Professor 
Baird forwarded to me specimens from Lake Champlain. Dr. De- 
kay has found it in Lake Oneida. Finally, this species extends 
to Pennsylvania, as I was able to convince myself by two speci- 
mens collected at Toxburg, and for which I am under obligation to 
Professor Baird. 

* Grystes salmoneus does not occur in the Northern nor in the Middle States, al- 
though Dr. Dekay mentions it upon the authority of Cuvier, who probably mistook 
specimens of our Grystes fasciatus for the southern species. Having, however, failed 
to discover this confusion, Dr. Dekay describes the same fish again, under the name of 
Centrarchtis obscurus. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 20T 

HuRO NIGRICANS Cuv. IS another species of the lower Canadian 
lakes, which occurs also in Lake Champlain. The generic dis- 
tinction from Grystes does not, however, rest upon sufficient charac- 
ters to warrant its preservation in the system of fishes ; I shall 
therefore call it in future G-rystes nigricans. It is a very common 
fish in some of the lakes, and highly esteemed as an article of food. 
Throughout the lake region it is known under the name of black 
bass, and may be seen in large numbers in the enclosure under the 
gallery of the Cataract Hotel at Niagara. Dr. Dekay describes it 
as Centrarchus fasciatus, although he copies also Cuvier's description 
and figure of ffuro nigricans, but without perceiving their identity. 

In the northern lakes there is only one species of true Centrarchus 
found, the Centrarchus ceneus; but it does not occur as far north as 
Lake Superior, though it is common in Lake Huron and the other 
great lakes. 

COTTOIDS. 

As they have been circumscribed by Cuvier, the Cottoids consti- 
tute a most natural family, though they contain genera apparently 
widely distinct. Indeed, between Peristedium and Scorpgena, 
between Pterois and Aspredophorus, between Gasterosteus and 
Cottus, there seems to be as great a chasm as can exist in a 
natural family ; however, they all belong to one and the same 
natural group. But in order to be satisfied that it is so, one should be 
acquainted with the fact, that animals or plants belonging to one and 
the same natural division, will in certain cases resemble each other 
80 closely as scarcely to allow distinct subdivisions, as, for instance, 
the Siluridge, which, with the same features throughout so numerous 
a family, run into various extremes of form, in which, however, 
there is no mistaking the family likeness even in the external ap- 
pearance ; the same is also the case among Cyprinidas or among 
Eels» But there are others, whose relations rest upon one particular 
combination of characters, which will, nevertheless, assume^ very 
different features, though preserving throughout that common trait of 
character. Genera belonging to such families may sometimes at 
first sight have very little resemblance to each other, they may 

20 



298 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

differ in very different amounts of variation, and nevertheless con- 
stitute, at least in the eye of the deeper investigator, a very natural 
group ; such, for instance, is the family of Cottoids, such again is 
the family of Scomberoids. The difficulty in such cases is not the 
diversity, but a correct appreciation of the connecting character, 
which, if misunderstood, might bring together animals widely dis- 
tinct in structure, but apparently related by external appearance ; for 
instance, the genus Capros among Scomberoids, near Zeus, owing to 
its form and the dilatability of the mouth, when in truth it belongs 
to the Chsetodonts, in the vicinity of Chelmo. 

Taking for granted that the family of Cottoids, as it is now charac- 
terized, is in the main a natural one, the question arises at once, 
what can be done to appreciate correctly the true relations of those 
remarkable tropical forms, as Pterois, Lynanceia, &c., with the 
more uniform Cottus, Etheostoma, Gasterosteus, of the freshwaters 
of temperate regions ? To become satisfied that they are truly 
members of the same family, it is necessary to undertake an extensive 
comparison of the structure of their head, and especially of the ar- 
rangement of their infraorbital bones, when it is seen that frequently 
the particular development which characterizes, generally, this 
group, is reduced to a rudimentary state in some of its members, as 
in Etheostoma and the genera allied to it. This group of small 
Cottoids having attracted less attention than the larger marine types, 
we subjoin a synopsis of their genera. 

Subfamily of Etheostomata. 

Freshwater fishes of medium and small size, somewhat related to 
the Gobii. Cheeks sometimes covered with scales, sometimes bare. 
One small suborbital bone only, the anterior. Mouth variable. 
Head sometimes elongated, sometimes truncated or rounded. Scales 
proportionally large. No air bladder. No pseudo-branchiae. Teeth 
very minute. 

Etheostoma, Rafin. 
.Head elongated, pointed ; mouth widely open, not protractile, 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 29§ 

broad, jaws of equal length. Opercular apparatus and cheeks 

bare. 

Etheostoma blennioides Raf. 

" no ta turn. 

" third species sent by Prof. Baird. 

PiLEOMA, Dekay. 

Head conical, truncated, in form of a hog's snout ; opening of 
the mouth moderate, and in form of an oblique arc of a circle, opening 
at the end of the snout, very shghtly protractile. Lower jaw a lit- 
tle shorter. Operculum and cheeks scaly. 

Etheostoma Caprodes Rafin. 
Pileoma seraifasciatum Dekay, 

" zebra Agass. Lake Superior. 

P(ECiLOSOMA, Agass. 

Head short and strong, rounded. Mouth little opened, propor- 
tionally broad ; it is not protractile, though the maxillary bone be 
moveable. Opercular apparatus scaly ; cheeks bare. 
Etheostoma variatum Kirtl. 
" maculatum Kirtl. 
" third species sent by Prof. Baird. 
" fourth species sent by Prof. Baird. 

BoLEOSOMA, Dekay. 

Head very short, rounded in section of a circle ; mouth small, 
horizontal, shghtly protractile. Opercular apparatus and cheeks 
very scaly, neck and sides of the head compressed. 

Boleosoma tessellatum Dekay. 

" tenue Agass. Charleston, S. C. 

" maculatum Agass. Lake Superior. 
Etheostoma Olmstedi Storer. 

" fifth species sent by Prof. Baird. 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



COTTUS. 



A broad and depressed head, contiguous to a body gradually 
diminishing towards the tail, is the essential zoological character of 
the genus Cottus, which contains at the same time freshwater and 
marine species ; the former having, as the character of the group, a 
head generally smoother and less prickly with spines than the 
marine species, which in their turn are generally larger. 

Europe as well as America produces species of both groups. 
For a long time all freshwater Cotti of central and northern Europe 
were considered as identical with Cottus Grobio, when, twelve years 
ago, Mr. Heckel * distinguished several species, very similar, it is 
true, to Cottus Grobio, but differing, however, in many respects. 

Recently, an American naturalist has attempted to show that all 
Cotti of Northern America constitute only a single species, and 
that this species is identical with the Cottus Crobio of Europe. 
However, studying the Cotti which we have collected around Lake 
Superior, I first recognized two species ; then comparing them with 
the C. cognatus Richards, and the C. viscosus Hald., I found these 
two latter not only distinct from each other, contrary to the 
opinion of Mr. Ayres, but yet distinct from those of Lake Superior. 
So that the presence of C. G-obio in this continent is quite illusive, 
as also the supposed identity of the Cotti in different regions. 

A monograph of the freshwater species of the genus Cottus in 
Northern America would be a work of very great importance, were its 
purpose but to rectify the different opinions entertained with regard 
to them. 

Cottus Richardsoni, Agass. 

The largest individuals of this species which we have had at our 
disposal, and on which our description rests, measure four and three- 
fourths inches with the caudal. The head alone constitutes one 
and one-fourth inches of this length, of course a little more than the 
fourth part ; its breadth equals three-fourths of its length, and its 

♦Annalen des Wiener Museums, 1837, II. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 301 

height forms a little more than the half. Besides being very 
depressed and flattened, the head further presents a slight depression 
on -the occiput. The mouth is large, its breadth measures nearly six- 
eighths of an inch. The jaws are of equal length, bordered with 
excessively fine teeth, with very hooked points. The upper jaw is 
shghtly protractile. The hps are considerably developed and form 
a very marked rounded process, on both sides of the lower jaw. 
The eyes of a circular form, with a diameter which exceeds a quar- 
ter of an inch, are placed at a distance of three-eighths of an inch 
from the end of the snout. The nostrils occupy about the middle of 
this space. The spine of the preoperculum scarcely forms a pro- 
jection through the skin ; it is strongly bent upwards and back- 
wards. The upper and hinder angles of the operculum terminate 
in a small process, flat and sharp, which remains hidden in the 
thickness of the membrane which encircles the free margin of this 
bone. The branchiostegal rays, six in number, on each side, are 
slender and cylindrical. The isthmus between the horns of the 
hyoid bone measures half an inch. 

The form of the body is regular, gradually decreasing towards the 
tail. The line of the back is raised ; that of the belly is about 
straight, forming the continuation to the flattening of the lower sur- 
face of the head. The greatest height corresponds to the anterior 
margin of the first dorsal fin ; it measures three-fourths of an 
inch, whilst the transversal diameter of that same region measures 
nearly six-eighths of an inch. Above the tail the height is but five- 
sixteenths of an inch, and the thickness one-eighth. The tail itself is 
slightly dilated and rounded at the insertion of the caudal. 

The fins upon the whole are much developed. The first dorsal 
has a basis of six-eighths of an inch, and is five-sixteenths of an inch 
high, and is situated at one and three-eighth inches from the end of 
the snout. Its upper margin is rounded, the rays of the centre 
being the longest ; they are eight in number and undivided. The 
second dorsal, twice as long as the first, and one third higher, is 
composed of eighteen rays, the longest occupying the centre of the 
fin ; a single one of them is dichotomized at its upper end. The 
caudal, about six-eighths of an inch long, is truncated behind. Its 
upper and lower margins are shghtly rounded. Thirteen rays may 



302 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

be counted there with a few rudiments ; the four rays of the centre, 
bifurcated from the middle of their length, dichotomize anew at 
their extremity jointly with the two adjacent rays above and below. 
The anal begins beneath the third ray of the second dorsal and 
terminates a little before this latter ; its form as well as its height 
is about the same ; there are fourteen undivided rays in it. The 
ventrals contain five simple rays ; the first, intimately connected with 
the second, is a little shorter. Their length is about five-eighths of an 
inch. The pectorals are large and fan-hke ; the rays, fifteen in num- 
ber, are all undivided ; the longest occupy the upper third part of 
the fin. They are only three-fourths of an inchlong, of course much 
below the length of the head. 

Br. 6 ; D. viii.-18 ; C. 3-13.1 ; A. 14 ; V. I. 4 ; P. 15. 

The anus is situated exactly in the middle of the length, including 
the caudal, which places it nearer to the insertion of this fin than 
to the end of the snout ; it is bordered behind by a small, tri- 
angular, membranous appendage which leans towards the anterior 
margin of the anal. The body is completely naked and unprovided 
with scales, as is the case in all species. The lateral line is very 
distinct, it begins at the upper margin of the operculum, bonds 
slightly downwards, then rises to terminate in a straight line about 
the middle of the second dorsal after having considerably approached 
the back. A row of pores is arranged in a straight line, constantly 
ascending until they are confounded with the back at the hinder 
margin of the second dorsal, at a distance of three-eighths of an inch 
from the insertion of the caudal. 

The color is a dark olive-colored brown on the whole surface of 
the head and cheeks and all along the back. The lower half of 
the sides is of a lighter tint. The abdomen and the lower face of 
the head have a rather yellowish tint, dotted with very small black 
spots. The lower jaw is sometimes completely black. The general 
tint of the fins is the same as that part of the body to which they cor- 
respond. The dorsals, caudal,anal and pectorals are barred trans- 
versely with blackish spots. The ventrals have the same shade as 
the abdomen. 

The characters which distinguish this species from C. cognatus 
Richardson, are easily made out by comparing the description which 



FISHES OP LAKE SUPERIOR. 303 

that author gives of it. The more distant position of the anus ; the 
proportions in the dimensions of the head and body ; the lateral 
line which terminates before the extremity of the tail ; the more 
anterior position of the anal relatively to the second dorsal, and 
finally the shorter pectorals in proportion to the length of the 
head, are the most striking peculiarities. 

I have found several specimens of this species in Montreal 
River. Among the number was one, whose general form has the 
same aspect, the same tint, the same proportions of the head and 
body, the same form and structure of the fins, the same mouth, but 
whose palatine bones bear a small group of teeth like those of the 
vomer. As yet we know only one freshwater species with palatine 
teeth, the C. asper Rich. From among five other specimens, also 
from Lake Superior, from Isle Royale, for which I am under obligation 
to Dr. C. T. Jackson, I have found the same group of palatine teeth 
in the largest of them, so that I am inclined to consider this peculiar- 
ity as an indication of old age, rather than a specific character. 

CoTTUS Franklini, Agass. 

This species is distinguished from the preceding by the follomng 
characters : the head retains the same proportions relatively to the 
body, but the mouth is smaller and less opened, and the teeth are less 
strong. The body diminishes more abruptly in height beyond the 
anus, and in its whole length the thickness is proportionally greater. 
Thence there results a more cylindrical and subcorneal form. The 
lateral line is less approximated to the back ; it disappears on the 
sides as in the preceding species, but the row of pores continues as 
far as above the middle of the insertion of the caudal after a very 
abrupt depression a Uttle before its termination. 

The fins are less developed, but their relative position is the same. 
The ventrals instead of five rays have only four. The caudal rays 
alone bifurcate once on the middle of their length. In all other 
fins they are undivided. They may be reduced to a formula as 
follows : 

Br. 6 ; D. 8-17 ; A. 12 ; C. 1-12.2 ; V. 1-3 ; P. 14. 

The membranous appendage of the posterior margin of the anus is 



304 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

here only in a rudimentary state, but the position of this orifice is the 
same as in the preceding species, and this fact excludes, a priori, the 
idea of an approach to the Q. cognatus of Richardson. Farther, 
our species has only four rays in the ventrals and twelve in the 
anal. 

The ground is of a yellow olive color with black spots. The 
lower side of the head and body and the lower half of the sides are 
yellowish white. The fins have the color of the region of the body 
to which they correspond. The ventrals and anal are of one color, 
the others are barred or simply spotted in transverse rows. 

This species is not without some analogy to that of Pennsyl- 
vania. The comparison which I have been enabled to make with it 
by means of specimens, for which I am under obligation to Professor 
Baird, has shown me diiferences which I consider as specific. 

Found in various localities along the eastern shores of Lake 
Superior. Prof. James Hall has also sent me specimens collected 
by him on the southern shores of the same lake. 

BoLEOSOMA, Dekay. 

This genus has been instituted by Dr. Dekay for a small fresh- 
water fish of the State of New York. He placed it in the family of 
Percoids, whence we withdraw it, to associate it to the Etheosto- 
mata, which should constitute a distinct group among the Cottoids, 
and the Gasterostei another near them. The zoological characters 
of this genus may be formulated in the following manner : The form 
of the body is that of a dart ; the head is very short, rounded like an 
arc of a circle, below which the mouth, generally small and slightly 
protractile, opens horizontally ; the upper jaw sloping over the lower. 
The neck and the sides of the skull compressed. The opercular 
apparatus and the cheeks covered with scales. 

The species known to me are : the Boleosoma tessellatum Dekay, 
the B. maculatum of Lake Superior, the JEtheostoma Olmstedi of 
Pennsylvania and the Northern States, which belongs to this genus 
and not to Etheostoma proper, and a species from South Carolina 
which I have called Boleosoma tenue. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 305 

BOLEOSOMA MACULATUM, AgaSS. 

Plate IV., fig. 3. 

The general form of this species is slender. The largest specimens 
which we have studied measured two and three-eighths inches in their 
whole length. The occiput and the anterior region of the body, before 
the first dorsal fin, are sensibly depressed. The space which the 
dorsal fins occupy forms a slightly convex line, sloping back\\ards 
and rising again behind the posterior margin of the soft dorsal and 
before the origin of the caudal. The ventral line is almost straight ; 
it becomes convex beneath the tail in the same proportion as that of 
the back is concave. If we add to that a gradual compression of 
the sides from the front backwards, we shall have for the whole body 
an oval form, whichsoever be the region upon which we make a 
transverse section. We shall remark only a gradual decrease of the 
oval from the head towards the tail. 

The head is short and thick ; it forms just the fifth part of the 
whole length, measured from the end of the snout, to the posterior 
margin of the operculum. The snout grows rounded under the form 
of an arc of a circle, beneath which the upper jaw is fixed horizon- 
tally. It is about semi-elliptical and slopes over the lower jaw on 
its whole circumference. The latter, by the third part more 
narrow towards its symphysis than at the origin of its two 
branches, appears under the form of an acute angle whose summit 
would be rounded. The mouth is small and surrounded with a 
lip, continuous, rounded and uniform on its whole circumference. 
Card-like teeth, excessively small, visible only with the magnify- 
ing glass, occupy the margin of the jaws. The vomer also has 
teeth, but sensibly larger. Upon the pharyngeal bones they become 
again as slender as upon the jaws. The eyes are large, almost circular, 
one-eighth of an inch in diameter, situated at the upper margin of the 
skull, above which they make a regular projection. The distance which 
separates them from the end of the rostrum is not quite equal to their 
diameter. The nostrils open in two orifices, both nearer to the orbits 
than to the end of the rostrum ; the upper orifice is twice as laro-e 
as the lower ; this latter is nearest the eye. The cheeks are very 

21 



306 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

prominent and covered with very thin scales, which are hidden in 
the skin. Those covering the opercular apparatus are larger and 
more conspicuous. The opercular bones are generally smooth ; the 
preoperculum is rounded ; the operculum is triangular, with its 
summit turned towards the tail, and terminated by two processes, 
of which one is a cutaneous, thread-like expansion, the other a direct 
continuation of the bone. The suboperculum is of an irregular ellipti- 
cal form, extending along the whole lower margin of the operculum. 
The interoperculum is a quite small triangular plate, lost between 
the bones above named, which constitute the opercular apparatus. 
The branchiostegal rays, as usual, six in number, are slender and 
diminish in length on the side of the isthmus between the horns of 
the hyoid bone. 

The anus is small and a little nearer to the head than to the 
tail. 

The first dorsal, of a roundish form, is generally separated from the 
second ; sometimes, however, a small very low membrane unites the 
hinder margin of the one to the anterior margin of the other. It 
is composed of nine or ten spinous rays ; the longest occupy the 
centre of the fin ; they measure nearly five-sixteenths of an inch ; 
the first has only the half of this height ; the two last, which are still 
shorter, incline very much on the back. The second dorsal, a little 
higher than the first, is equilateral, having its upper margin almost 
straight, and its posterior margin half the height of the anterior mar- 
gin, where the largest rays are ; they are twelve in number, all bifur- 
cated, and a few trifurcated. Its insertion measures about half 
an inch. The caudal is inserted on a slightly dilated pedicle 
of the tail ; the upper and lower margins, almost straight, diverge 
a little on their extent ; the posterior margin is truncated almost in 
a straight line ; there are seventeen rays, divided from the first third 
part of their length, which is three-eighths of an inch ; on the upper 
margin we count six, and on the lower five rudiments of rays ; the 
two following on the two margins remain always below the dimensions 
of the others, nor do they bifurcate, though they be distinctly 
articulated transversely. The anal is opposite the second dorsal, 
it is less elevated, equilateral, but its outer margin is rounded ; the 
rays, eleven in number,' bifurcate beyond their middle; the ray of 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 307 

the anterior margin remains very short and simple. The ventrals 
are inserted a little behind the pectorals ; they are five-sixteenths 
of an inch long ; their form is lanceolate, narrow at the base and 
pointed at the extremity ; of the six rays which compose it, that of 
the outer margin is simple, the two central ones are the longest and 
about equal. The pectorals are the longest of all the fins ; their 
posterior extremity exceeds somewhat the ventrals. Their base, 
which measures one-tenth of an inch, forms the fourth part of their 
length. The rays are twelve ; the central ones are the most elon- 
gated ; they diminish regularly to each side, giving thus to the whole 
of the fin the form of an oval elongated at both ends. 

Br. 6 ; D. IX-12 ; C. 6-17.5 ; A. 11 ; V. I. 5 ; P. 12. 

The posterior margin of the scales is semi-circular and finely pec- 
tinated. The lateral line is concave, and median on the tail ; it rises 
perceptibly as it approaches the head. The back and two-thirds of 
the sides are spotted irregularly with black ; excepting a row of 
larger spots, extending from the posterior margin of the opercular 
apparatus to the pedicle of the caudal. Below this band, and as far 
as the under side of the body, it has a uniform yellowish tint. The 
dorsal and caudal fins, as well as the base of the pectorals, are 
barred transversely with black ; the others have the tint of the belly. 

This species was first observed at Fort William ; a large number 
of specimens were also collected at the Pic. 

PiLEOMA, Dekay. 

The revision we have made of the species arranged in the genus 
Etheostoma by authors, has shown the necessity of subdividing 
this group into several smaller genera, for two of which we have 
retained names proposed by Dr. Dekay, though he does not seem to 
have been aware that his species belonged to Rafinesque's old genus 
Etheostoma. Not being able to give at this time a detailed review 
of this division without further materials which have no reference to 
the fishes of Lake Superior, I shall limit myself to indicating the 
general characters of the genus to which I refer the species described 
below. 

The body is slender, fusiform, compressed. The head is conical, 



308 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

truncated, terminated by a kind of hog's snout, which perceptibly 
exceeds the lower jaw, without, however, sloping over it. The mouth, 
very slightly protractile, moderately opened, resembles an oblique arc 
of a circle, and opens at the end of the snout. The opercular 
apparatus and the cheeks are covered with scales. 

Besides the species here described, Etheostoma Ca'prodes Raf., 
and Pileoma semifasciatum Dekay must rank in this genus. ' 

PiLEOMA ZEBRA, AgaSS. 

This species is very near the Etheostoma Caprodes Raf. QPile- 
oma Caprodes Ag.) from which it differs only in a few peculiari- 
ties of the structure of the opercular apparatus, in the direction of 
the lateral line, and in the proportional size of the eyes. Pileoma 
Caprodes attains larger dimensions than our P. zehra, the largest 
specimens which we have had at our disposal, measuring only about 
seven inches. Our species is figured Plate 4, figure 4, under the 
name of Etheostoma zebra. 

The general form of the species under consideration is elegant 
and regular. The upper outline of the body describes a slight curve, 
rising highest at the middle of the first dorsal ; it curves more 
abruptly on the head than on the side of the tail, where it becomes 
a little concave on the space contained between the hinder margin 
of the second dorsal and the insertion of the caudal. The abdo- 
men is less convex than the back ; from the insertion of the anal, the 
outline rises and becomes slightly convex beyond this fin. The great- 
est height perpendicularly above the first dorsal is three-eighths of an 
inch. The greatest thickness, which corresponds to the same region, 
amounts to about two-thirds of the height. These proportions of the 
height and breadth are maintained uniformly along the whole body, 
from which a regularly compressed form, from the head to the tail, 
results. The head is conical, more pointed than in the other species 
of the genus, and forms the fourth part of the length of the body. 
The surface of the head is smooth. The eyes are large and subcir- 
cular, one-seventh of an inch in diameter, and situated at the upper 
margin ; the distance between them exceeds their diameter. The 
openings of the nostrils are two on each side, placed one before the 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 309 

other, at the extremities of a small furrow, arched outwards. The 
posterior is the smallest, and occupies the upper and anterior margin 
of the eje ; the second is placed nearer to the snout than to the eye 
itself. 

The scales which cover the opercular apparatus are excessively 
thin, and allow the form and outlines of the different bones to be 
distinottly seen, the surface of which presents the same silver-colored 
reflection as the bare space before the pectorals, which extends also 
beneath the head. The ascending branch of the preoperculum is 
almost straight at its hinder margin, which is thinned ; the lower 
angle is rounded. The operculum has the form of a slightly obtuse 
triangle ; the upper angle is armed with a point ; the margin 
forming the hypothenuse is shghtly concave or undulated. The 
suboperculum is proportionally large ; a membranous expansion, in 
which the point of the operculum loses itself, terminates its upper 
extremity ; its lower extremity extends before the operculum in the 
form of a small hook ; the bone itself, like the operculum, is rounded 
in the form of a stretched and undulated circle, on its circumference. 
The interoperculum is very small. The cheeks make no projection. 
The branchiostegal rays, six in number, are bent and flattened. 
The anus is nearer to the tail than to the head. The lateral hne is 
direct from the centre of the caudal to the head ; beyond the anal 
it approaches nearer the back than the belly. The scales are of 
middle size ; the denticulations of their posterior margin are only 
visible with the magnifjdng glass. 

Both dorsal fins are distinct and separated from each other. The 
first begins at three-fourths of an inch from the end of the snout ; its 
insertion is equal to this distance ; its greatest height, which is at the 
anterior thirjd, is about one-fourth of an inch, and diminishes gradually 
towards its posterior margin. The second dorsal is higher than the 
first, and has a basis of less than half an inch ; it is composed of 
fifteen bifurcated rays ; its anterior and posterior margins are equi- 
lateral ; its upper margin slopes from before backwards, its greatest 
height being at the anterior margin. The caudal has seventeen well 
developed rays — that is to say — articulated and bifurcated; and 
eight or nine undivided rudiments on each of its sides ; its pos- 
terior margin forms a slight crescent ; its upper and lower margins 



310 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

are straight. The anterior margin of the anal is opposite to that of 
the second dorsal, but its insertion is an eighth of an inch less, and 
it is at least as high, if not higher ; its terminal margin is more 
convex ; the greatest rajs occupy the anterior third part ; the first 
is undivided ; the anterior margin is rounded, the posterior short 
and straight ; here are twelve rays. The ventrals have, as usual, 
six rays, the first undivided ; their insertion is a little behind the 
pectorals ; their length exceeds three-eighths of an inch ; they are 
elongated and terminated in a point, which exceeds the posterior 
extremity of the pectorals. These latter are somewhat longer than 
the ventrals, and are composed of fourteen rays, the longest of which 
occupy the centre. The base of these fins measures an eighth of 
an inch. When expanded, the rays arrange themselves in the form 
of a fan, with a regularly rounded circumference. 

Br. 6 ; D. XIV-15 ; C. 9-17.9; A. 12 ; V. I. 5 ; P. 14. 

The body is barred with black transverse bands, extending from 
the back towards the sides. They are alternately longer and shorter. 
None are found on the last third of the sides, which has the color of 
the abdomen and the lower part of the head. The fins partake of 
the color of the region of the body to which they belong. Above, 
the head is finely dotted with black. 

The few individuals of this species which we have procured were 
caught at the Pic. 

Gasterosteus nebulosus, Agass. 
Plate IV., fig. 4. 

The determination of this species has caused us much trouble, 
from its great resemb'ance to Gast. occidentalis Cuv., Gr. concinnus 
Richards., and even to Cr. pimgitius of Europe, with which the 
preceding species are compared in the descriptions of authors. 
Another difficulty occurred to us, and rendered the synonymy of (r. 
occidentalis Cuv. very complicated, from Dekay having referred to 
this fish an analogous species of the State of New York, which differs 
from it ; the same which we find again in Massachusetts, and which 
Dr. Storer identifies with Q. pungitius L. After a minute com- 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 311 

parison, we have ascertained that the species of Lake Superior, 
which we here describe, is a species distinct from all others ; 
that Cr. ocddentalis Dekaj, and Gr. punyitius Storer, are the same 
species, differing, however, from the Cr. ocddentalis Cuv. This lat- 
ter will preserve the name which Cuvier gave to it, and the species 
of New York and Massachusetts will be designated under the name 
of Gr. Dekayi. 

This is not the place to enter into minute details, by means of 
which to distinguish the species. We shall soon treat of them in a 
monograph of all the species of North America, limiting ourselves 
at present to describing the one collected about the Sault of St. 
Mary. 

The body is subcylindrical or compressed, growing thinner from 
the insertion of the dorsal and anal fins towards the tail, which be- 
comes very thin and slender, widening at the tip for the insertion of 
the caudal. It is from two inches to two inches and one half 
long in adult specimens ; its greatest height is at the pectorals, and 
is contained six times in the length. The outlines of the back and 
belly are slightly convex ; the former from behind the occiput to the 
posterior margin of the dorsal fin, where it descends somewhat ; the 
latter from the lower end of the snout to the posterior margin of the 
anal, being depressed on the tail. The head, from the end of the 
snout to the posterior margin of the operculum, is the fourth part of 
the length, and to the occipital carina one-fifth. The head is sub- 
conical, generally pointed forwards ; the lower jaw, which somewhat 
exceeds the upper in the protraction, forms an angle, reentering 
in the retraction. The teeth are minute ; the fissure of the jaws con- 
siderable. The eyes, proportionally large, have a diameter of nearly 
three-sixteenths of an inch ; the distance which separates their ante- 
rior margin from the end of the snout is a little longer than their diam- 
eter. The nostrils, which open along this space, are very near the 
orbits. 

The suborbital bones, only two in number, are far from covering the 
cheeks. The first protects the anterior margin of the eyes and the 
lower margin of the nostrils, leaving a bare triangular space between 
it and the second suborbital, situated below the vertical line which 
would pass through the eyeball. It does not exceed the posterior 



312 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

margin of the orbits, and touches the preoperculum only hy its 
lower margin. The rest of the cheek, between the eye and the pre- 
operculum, remains completely bare. They are finely granulated, 
without spines or denticulations, though their outer circumference 
presents a few notches. The preoperculum borders the posterior 
and lower margins of the cheek in the form of an obtuse angle, 
dilated on the summit, and narrow at its margins. The operculum 
is triangular with slightly concave sides, the posterior margin round- 
ed, and the surface radiately striated. The suboperculum forms an 
acute angle ; its anterior branch is convex on the side of the oper- 
culum, and concave on the side of the interoperculum, which has 
the form of a small sub rectangular triangle. 

There are about three equal branchiostegal rays. The branchial 
fissure itself is well proportioned. The suprascapular and scapular 
bones are not visible externally ; they attach the humeral to the skull. 
The upper extremity of the humeral forms a small triangle, with granu- 
lar surface, one side of which extends above the base of the pectorals, 
thus bounding, at the upper part, the large smooth space which sepa- 
rates these latter from the branchial opening. This smooth space is 
bordered on its lower circumference by the narrow prolongation of 
the cul)itus on each side, which, at the lower part of the body, forms 
a triangle, whose summit advances like the point of a gothic arch in the 
isthmus near to the branchial fissure. The sides extend parallel as 
far as the ossa innominata, without uniting with them. They thus 
circumscribe a bare triangular space in the enclosure of the arch, 
which embraces not quite half of the space, it being a parallelogram 
for the rest of its extent. The shield under the belly formed by the 
ossa innominata is triangular, and the basis turned forwards is stri- 
ated transversely at the outer margin, from which is cut a segment 
of a circle, which is sometimes obtusely triangular where the bare 
space disappears, which the branches of the cubitus circumscribe, as 
we have just mentioned. The hinder point of the triangle is obtuse, 
and terminates at some distance from the anus. The ventral spine 
does not quite reach the extremity of the triangle. The ascending 
branch of the ossa innominata rises at a small distance from the pec- 
torals, inclining backwards. It is somewhat more dilated at its sum- 
mit than at its origin, forming thus an elongated isosceles triangle, 



FISHES OP LAKE SUPERIOR. 813 

striated at its surface. The anus is situated a little behind the 
middle of the length. 

There are generally nine spines on the back : a single instance of 
eight has occurred from among a hundred individvials submitted to our 
examination ; none contained ten. A small triangular and very low 
membrane extends from the inferior third and inner part of each of 
tliem, to rejoin the back. These spines, of an average height of a tenth 
of an inch, are thin and bent somewhat backwards ; the last, which is 
bent a little more than the others, is always independent of the soft 
dorsal. This latter is generally composed of ten, sometimes eleven, 
soft rays, upon a base of about two-fifths of an inch ; all are bifurca- 
ted, as is the case with the other fins for three-fifths of their length ;• 
at the anterior margin the rays are almost one-fifth of an inch in 
height, whilst on the posterior margin they are confounded with the 
line of the back, which gives to this fin the form of a triangle. The 
anal, which is exactly opposite to it, has somewhat the same form, with 
a somewhat shorter base, which recedes a little at its anterior margin ; 
it contains nine rays, and in a few exceptional cases eight ; it is some- 
what lower than the dorsal. The caudal is rounded, rather concave 
on its posterior margin ; there are constantly twelve bifurcated 
rays, (six in each lobe,) and four rudimentary ones at the upper 
margin, and as many at the lower ; the inner one has twice the 
length of the three others ; the largest rays are about one-fifth of 
an inch in length. The bare space of the upper and lower margins 
of the tail, which separates the caudal from the termination of the 
dorsal and anal, varies between one-third and two-fifths of an inch. 
The pectorals are sometimes as much as three-tenths of an inch long ; 
they are composed of ten nearly ecjual rays ; their fonn is oval, 
narrowed towards the base. The ventrals are, as in most species, 
reduced to a spinous ray, inserted on the ossa innominata, with a 
small membrane from the axilla, at the centre of which a small sim- 
ple ray is observed. The spinous ray is here very elongated, since 
it nearly reaches the posterior extremity of the ventral cuirass, 
against which it leans when at rest. It is about one-sixth of an inch 
long, slightly curved within, excavated at the inner side of its base, 
sulcated on its outer surface, thin like those of the back, and with the 



314 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

magnifying glass, traces of fine denticulations may be discerned at 
its inner margin. 

D. IX-10 ; A. 9 ; C. 4. 12.4 ; P. 10 ; V. I. 1. 

The body, besides the bones of the belly, is completely bare and 
unprovided with scales. On the sides of the tail we remark a small 
carina, which extends from the hinder third of the dorsal and 
anal fins to the basis of the caudal. This carina is formed by 
small bon}^ pieces, upon which rise small depressed hook-like points. 
The lateral line is continued from the anterior extremity of this 
carina to the occiput, following the back-bone. 

This species has been found in abundance at the Pic. Wlien alive, 
its color is of an olive brown above, mottled with blackish brown and 
silvery white below. 

Gasterosteus ptgm^us, Agass. 

Plate IV., fig. 1. 

This species is very inferior to the Gr. concinnus in its size, so that 
we have in it, and not in this latter, the true pigmy of the genus. 
Its length does not attain eleven-sixteenths of an inch. The head, 
measured from its anterior extremity to the posterior margin of the 
operculum, has a little more than one-fourth of it. Its height varies 
between one-seventh and one-eighth of an inch, and remains nearly 
the same from the nape of the neck to the anterior fourth of the dorsal. 
The eyes are proportionally large ; the nostrils, situated at the upper 
margin of the orbits, occupy the middle of the space between this 
latter and the end of the snout. The head is somewhat sloping. 
The curve of the back, very elliptical on its middle, descends abruptly 
towards the tail about the insertion of the soft dorsal ; that of the 
belly is slightly convex, and ascends also very abruptly, to form, in 
conjunction with that of the back, a narrow contraction on the middle 
of the peduncle of the tail, which is remarkably short, measuring 
scarcely one-eighth of an inch from the posterior margin of the 
dorsal and anal fins to the origin of the caudal. The anus is placed 
seven-sixteenths of an inch from the head. The body is completely 
bare ; the bones of the head are smooth ; the opercular apparatus 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 315 

hidden under the sldn ; the whole dotted with black. The space 
between the pectoral fins and the branchial opening is sensibly 
reduced, and covered by the skin, the aspect of which is the same 
as on the rest of the body. The thoracic arch is not visible ; we 
have also scarcely found traces of the cuirass formed by the ascend- 
ing branch of the innorainated bones, and about the basis of the 
ventral spines, which are perceived only with the magnifying glass, 
under the form of very small hooks. 

It was difficult to count the exact number of the rays of the fins, 
as they are very thin and slender. We have, however, recognized the 
existence of at least six dorsal spines ;• the last of which is well devel- 
oped, and has a small membrane at its posterior margin, arising 
from the summit of the spine to unite the basis of the soft dorsal. 
This latter seems to have seven rays, composing a triangular fin, whose 
posterior angle rests on the tail. The anal has the same form, 
but is somewhat smaller, opposite to the dorsal, and provided with 
six rays. The caudal is short, rounded, and has twelve rays, perhaps 
even fourteen, for the two exterior ones appeared to us almost twice 
as thick as the others. The pectorals are pointed, and have eight 
rays of an extreme thinness. As for the ventrals, as we have seen 
above, they are only visible with the magnifying glass, and all we 
have been enabled to do was to satisfy ourselves of the presence of 
the spinous ray common to all species. 

Three individuals of this species were found at Michipicotin. Two 
from among them are only one-quarter of an inch long. 

EsociDZE, (^The Picker eh?) 

The family of pickerels is perhaps the least understood of any in 
the whole class. From the characters assigned to it by Cuvier, it 
contains a variety of fishes, wliich can scarcely belong to one and the 
same natural group, and indeed more recent investigators, as, for 
instance, Joh. Miiller, have divided the Esoces of Cuvier into two 
families, on the ground of the pseudo-branchiffi ; so that we have 
now the families of Scomberesoces in addition to the true Esoces. 
Several isolated genera formerly referred also to tlie family of the 
Esoces, have either been removed to other natural groups, or become 



316 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

the types of distinct families for themselves, as Lepiclosteus and 
Polypterus. 

No species of Scomberesox are found in Lake Superior, nor in 
any of the lower lakes, although they occur in the Atlantic rivers of 
these latitudes, where Belone truncata is not uncommon, and with it 
Scomberesox Storeri. Without discussing for the present the natu- 
ral relations of the Esoces and Scomberesoces, I cannot but think 
that the Scomberesoces are an aberrant type of the great family of 
Scombridae, with abdominal ventrals and some other peculiarites. 

The true Esoces, as circumscribed by Joh. Miiller, are very few ; 
indeed his family contains little else than the true genus Esox, fishes 
which are all inhabitants of the fresh waters, and occur chiefly in the 
temperate zone ; their structural peculiarities are such that it is diffi- 
cult to understand their true affinities ; their cylindrical, elongated 
form indicates a low position among abdominales, as does also the 
composition of their mouth, the maxillary being entirely deprived of 
teeth, while the palatal bones contain a powerful armature ; the 
connection of the intermaxillaries and maxillaries in one arch places 
them however in the vicinity of the Salmonidce. The skeleton, and 
especially the skull, is remarkably soft in these fishes. 

North America seems to be the proper fatherland of the genus 
Esox, its species being numerous all over this continent, from the 
great northern lakes, through all the rivers and lakes of the east and 
west, and as far south even as Florida. In North America, there- 
fore, a deeper study of this family becomes alone possible, in relation 
both to the knowledge of species and their affinities with the other 
families of the class. 

The species are certainly more numerous than the American au- 
thors who have written on the pickerels have recognized ; and if we 
had for examination specimens from all localities of this continent, we 
might now publish the result of our observations on this family. But, 
unwilling to introduce in our science unconnected observations, espe- 
cially on a difficult and controverted subject, we prefer to recur at a 
future time to this family. We shall limit ourselves here to a de- 
scription of the species collected from Lake Superior. But its bare 
description would be without interest, did we not compare it with the 
species already described from the region of the lakes. Two species 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 817 

are mentioned by Dr. Richardson : an Esox Lucius and an Usox 
Estor Lesu. Now the species of Lake Superior is not the Lucius 
of the Fauna Boreali-Americana, as we might infer by comparing the 
descriptions. In regard to this, we could entertain no doubt. As 
for the Esox Estor of Dr. Richardson, we allow that we have doubts 
whether or not the author of the Fauna Boreali-Americana had the 
true Esox Estor Lesu., or perhaps my Esox Boreus, from^Lake Su- 
perior. The description which he gives of it* is too incomplete to 
enable us to recognize it ; the more so, as that description is made 
with reference to Esox Lucius, which is found to be quite different. 
Only two characters occur which may be considered to have some 
value ; but, strange to say, these two characters are found united in 
none of the species which I know. I mean, first, the form of the 
scales, which are as high as they are long, a character which we 
find in the true Esox Estor Lesu. But, again, the scales would be 
much smaller in the species which Dr. Richardson had in view. 
The Esox Estor Lesu. is the species which has the least number of 
scales on the cheeks and opercula ; but Dr. Richardson gives for his 
E. Estor two rows of scales, which descend along the anterior mar- 
gin of the operculum until they attain the upper angular process of 
the suboperculum. It is therefore possible that the species referred 
to Esox Estor by Dr. Richardson was neither the Esox Estor Le- 
sueur, nor my Esox Boreus, but a species distinct from all others, 
as the small size of its scales seems to indicate. 

Esox Boreus, Agass. 

When marked external zoological characters are wanting in a 
group, on account of its uniformity, it becomes necessary to resort 
to another series of facts. When the object is to find the place 
which a certain family occupies in its order or in its class, compara- 
tive embryology and palaeontology will often answer the purpose as 
completely as an anatomical investigation, and even with more pre- 
cision. If, on the contrary, we have to do with the distinction of 
species, we may in such cases have recourse to comparative anat- 

* Fauna Boreali-Americana, p. 127. 



318 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

omy. In the present instance, we have had no occasion to hesitate. 
Having seen by turns the general form, the outlines of the fins, the 
outer details of the head, and the color, sometimes varying in the 
same species to a great extent, and at others preserving a monot- 
onous uniformity, we have taken for our guide the structure of the 
mouth, and particularly that of the palatal bones and of the vomer, 
and we may say, that whenever we have had series of specimens at 
our disposal, the general traits of the species have not varied sensi- 
bly. We have relied still more confidently on this method, when, 
after comparing the buccal apparatus, we have seen the extreme 
variations stop in these limits. 

What strikes us, especially in the species here referred to, is the 
general smallness of the rows of palatal and vomeric teeth. None 
make a sti-ong projection above the others. The surface of the 
palatals has a very uniform appearance, and it is only when we ex- 
amine them closely, that we perceive that the teeth of the inner row 
alone exceed those of the body of the bone in size by about one-third, 
though remaining equal among themselves. The palatal bones 
themselves are slightly bent, with the convexity turned inwards. 
Their greatest length is one and a half inches, their greatest breadth 
one-third of an inch, which maintains itself on the anterior two- 
thirds, diminishing sensibly on the posterior third, the extremity of 
which terminates in an oblique line, extending from the front back- 
wards. The anterior margin is oblique from behind forwards, as in 
most species, owing to the curve of the snout. The vomer, includ- 
ing its dilatation and the narrow band, is one and nine-sixteenths 
inches long. The dilatation is of a triangular form, rounded at the 
anterior margin, and slightly concave on its sides ; its centre is 
depressed, concave. A certain number of teeth, larger than those 
of the centre, occupy its circumference. The narrow band of teeth 
upon the vomer is lanceolate, and terminates in an acute point a little 
beyond the extremity of the palatals. We barely observe a con- 
traction at the place where it enlarges at its anterior part. In the 
centre it is one-eighth of an inch broad. The teeth which cover 
its surface are very small. The intermaxillaries do not measure 
five-eighths of an inch ; they have a single row of teeth as small as 
those of the vomeric band. The same is the case with the teeth of the 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 319 

lower jaw as with those of the palate. The largest, situated on the 
posterior two-thirds of the maxillary branches, are uniform among 
themselves and regularly spaced, slender, flattened, and their acute 
point is curved either backwards or inwards. At the anterior part, 
and on the symphysis, the same uniformity exists ; and though form- 
ing only one single row, they are grouped in pairs. They incline 
towards the interior of the mouth, and are more conspicuous than on 
the body of the palatal bones. 

The tongue is sHghtly dilated, laterally rounded, subtruncated at 
its anterior margin. It has on its middle two contiguous shields, 
covered with excessively small, card-like teeth. The posterior, of 
elliptical form, is six-eighths of an inch long, and one-fourth of an 
inch broad. The anterior, half as long, terminates in a- conical point, 
at a distance of one-third of an inch from the end of the tono-ue. 
We remark two small, similar shields on the symphysis of the branch- 
ial arches. The pharyngeal bones are furnished with card-like teeth 
of great uniformity. 

The external characters of this species may be indicated in the 
following manner. In general it is fusiform, the greatest thickness 
corresponding to the middle of the length, whence the body seems to 
taper towards both its extremities. The head forms one-fourth of the 
whole length ; its conical form is merely the result of the attenuation 
of the body forwards, which renders it proportionally small ; its 
upper face is flattened ; a medium furrow, with widened margins, 
occupies the centre of it, between both eyes. The snout is depressed, 
and terminates in an elliptical curve, which exceeds the extremity of 
the lower jaw. Numerous and considerably large pores extend on 
the frontals above the snout ; from the occiput they pass beneath 
the orbits and through the preoperculum on the branch of the lower 
maxillary. The mouth is moderately opened. The eyes are large and 
elliptical ; their horizontal diameter is eleven-sixteenths of an inch, 
their vertical diameter nearly five-eighths of an inch. The nasal ori- 
fices, two in number on each side, open before and within the eyes ; 
the hinder is separated from the orbit by a space of only one-fourth 
of an inch ; it is crescentic, with the convexity turned towards the 
eye ; a membranous fold shuts its opening ; the anterior is ovoid, and 
has a large opening outwards. The cheeks are completely covered 



320 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

with scales as also the upper half of the operculum. The rest of 
the opercular apparatus is bare. The preoperculum is harrow, its 
posterior margin undulated. The operculum is trapezoidal ; its an- 
terior margin concave ; the postei'ior rounded, and the lower oblique. 
The suboperculum, somewhat longer than the operculum, is about 
one-third as broad, being, however, somewhat more narrow behind 
than in front. The interoperculum is very narrow and elongated, 
being undulated like the preoperculum on its outer margin. The 
branchiostegal membrane is narrow ; it contains fifteen rays, of which 
the first is much the broadest ; .all are flattened or compressed ; the 
longest are two inches ; the shortest five-eighths of an inch long. 

The body grows thinner towards the tail from the ventrals, under- 
going a considerable contraction behind the dorsal and anal fins. It 
widens again at the insertion of the caudal. 

The dorsal fin has a quadrangular form, its upper margin being 
only slightly arched ; it is two and three-eighths inches long and two 
inches high. The rays are twenty-one in number ; the three first are 
very short, and are apphed towards the fourth ; the three last diminish 
equally in height ; its posterior margin is at a distance of three inches 
from the rudimentary rays of the caudal. The anal is situated a 
little farther back than the doi*sal, at a distance of two and three- 
eighths inches only from the basis of the caudal ; its circumference is 
rounded ; there are ten rays ; the four first near the fifth ; its length 
is an inch and six-eighths, its height two inches, making it, of course, 
higher than long. The caudal is composed of eighteen rays ; it is 
notched ; the breadth at the extremity of the two lobes measures 
three and a half inches ; the largest rays correspond to the middle of 
each lobe ; they are two and six-eigliths inches long, whilst in the 
centre they are scarcely one inch and a half ; very small interradial 
scales extend over a space of three-fourths of an inch for each lobe 
from their insertion. The ventrals contain eleven rays ; they are 
somewhat nearer the anal than the pectorals are, and also nearer to 
the head than to the extremity of the caudal, being situated at ten 
and six-eighths inches from the snout ; the whole length being nearly 
one foot eight inches ; their form is broad and rounded on the outer 
circumference ; their insertion measures about five-eighths of an inch, 
their greatest breadth one inch and a fifth, and their length two 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 321 

inches. The pectorals, composed of sixteen rays, have the same 
general form as the ventrals, but still more rounded, longer, and 
broader hy one-fourth of an inch, with a basis of insertion of eleven- 
sixteenths of an inch. 

Br. 15 ; D. 21 ; A. 18 ; C. 28 ; V. 11 ; P. 16. 

The scales are oblong, longer than broad, and proportionally larger 
than in the ^sox Estor Lesu. We may count four of them on the 
space of three-eighths of an inch. The lateral line is very distinct ; 
it follows the middle of the body from the basis of the caudal to a 
point in front of the doi'sal and anal fins, Avhence it rises to terminate 
at the height of the upper third of the operculum. 

The upper side of the head, the back, and the upper half of the 
sides are bluish black, amidst which the scales shine Avith a metallic 
azure reflection. The face and the lower half of the sides have a 
lighter tint, are sprinkled with whitish spots, arranged in horizontal 
or oblique bands on the face, spherical or ovoid on the sides, and dis- 
posed in ill-defined longitudinal rows. The lower side of the head 
is white ; the abdomen is very pale yellow. The fins have an olive- 
colored tint ; the caudal has black spots, elongated in the direction 
of the rays ; these spots afiect less regularity on the dorsal and anal, 
and disappear almost entirely on the ventrals and pectorals. 

In the young individual, the spots of the sides do not exist, as such. 
The general color is more olive, more uniform, and the body is barred 
vertically with sinuous white bands, which are now and then inter- 
cepted. This fish was obtained from various places along the north- 
ern shores of Lake Superior. 

Gadoids. 

The family of codfishes contains numerous species, closely allied, 
all of which are circumscribed within the colder regions of both 
hemispheres. The northern seas especially teem with codfishes of 
various kinds, and the number of individuals of some of the speqies 
must be countless, if we judge by the quantity caught annually. 
Taken as a whole, this family consists of low forms, their bodv being 
very much elongated, their vertical fins very large, and the ventrals 
placed in such a position under the chin, as shows that when they 

22 



322 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

were formed, the vertical fin extended underneath very far forwards. 
The abdominal cavity extends also far backwards. In some of the 
genera, the dorsal, caudal, and anal remain continuous ; in others, 
thej are slightly divided ; in others, they become subdivided into 
many fins, but in all they extend very far forwards. From their geo- 
graphical distiibution in the colder portions of the northern hemi- 
sphere, Ave need not be surprised at finding a good many of these 
fishes among the freshwaters, as the northern seas contain less salt 
than the other portions of the ocean. 

The real affinities of the family are still obscure to me. From 
their peculiar affinities, they stand very much by themselves ; how- 
ever, the large size of the head, the developments of the dorsals, and 
even the structure of the skeleton, seem to bring them near the Lo- 
phioids ; and, on the other hand, I cannot but think the Scomberoids 
somewhat related to them, especially when comparing the Merluccius 
with Naucrates, etc. In Lake Superior, one single species of that 
family occurred. 

The first account we possess of the Gadoids of North Amer- 
ica dates back to the year 1773. At that epoch, J. Reinhold 
Forster published descriptions of four species of fishes of Hudson's 
Bay, in a letter addressed to Pennant,* among which a Lota is 
mentioned, which he identifies with the European species, so well de- 
scribed, he says, by Pennantf himself, that he thought it superfluous 
to add anything. The sole difference that struck him, was a larger 
size, and six branchiostegal rays instead of seven. Pennant after- 
wards inscribes it, in his Zoologia Arctica, under the same denomina- 
tion of Gadus Lota L. 

In 1817 Lesueur published descriptions of two species which he 
considered as new, under the names of Gadus maculosus and Gadus 
compressus,'^ but he cites neither Forster nor Pennant, thinking, 
no doubt, that they had seen the European species. The same 
year Dr. Mitchill, though acquainted with the writings of Lesueur, 
seems not to have been aware that the latter had just named his 
species, and proposed to call the first Gadus lacustris.^ Here 

* Philos. Trans., LXIiI. 149. f British Zoology. 

X Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc, Philad., I. «3. § Amer. Moath. Mag. II, 244. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 

already begins a discrepancy in the characters assigned to this spe- 
cies. Lesueur says, '•'■ jaws eq\tal,^^ and Mitchill, " upper jaiv long- 
est, and receiving the lower.'^ He adds : " The skin is smooth arid 
scalelessJ' The smallness of the scales must have misled him ; if 
not, his Gradus lacustris is not the Gradus maculosus of Lesueur. 
Dr. Richardson mentions the Gadus Lota in his Journal of the Expedi- 
tion of Franklin, published in 1823 ; and in 1836, when publishing 
the Fauna Boreali-Americana, he describes, under the name of Lota 
maculosa, a species from Pine -Island-Lake, which must be the same 
he had seen in 1823, since he gives the same synonyms. The 
description is considerably detailed, but it contains no criterion 
establishing the perfect identity with the species of Lesueur. He 
agrees on the point that the jaws are of equal length, but as 
for the lateral line, Lesueur had said, " in the middle of the bodg,'^ 
and Richardson says, " nearer to the back than to the belly, and is 
slightly arched till it passes the first third of the anal fin, after 
which it takes a straight course^'' etc. 

In 1839 Dr. Storer* gave a short description of the Gradus com- 
pressus Lesu., which he places, however, in the genus Lota, without 
trying to establish a connection between his description and that of 
Lesueur. 

In 1842 Dr. J. P. Kirtlandf copies the description of Gr. maculosus 
of Lesueur, and cites Richardson in the synonyms. He adds a fig- 
ure. In the same year, 1812, .Rev. Z. Thompson^ describes a species 
from Lake Champlain, comparing it with the description of Gr. macu- 
losus Lesu., and though retaining for it this name, he remarks certain 
differences which strike him. Thus, the upper jaw is uniformly longer, 
and the lateral line, " anterior to the vent, is fnuch nearer the back 
than the belly.^^ In this sense, the lateral line agrees with the 
description of Dr. Richardson. Mr. Thompson finds much resem- 
blance between his fish and that described by Dr. Storer under the 
name of Lota Brosmiayia, but it differs from it, he says, " in having 
the upper jaiv longest, iti having the snout more pointed and less 
orbicular." He finds that his fish differs as much from the Lota 



* Rep. etc., p. 13i. f Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. IV., 24, PI. 3. f. 1. 

J History of Vermont, p. 146. 



324 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

maculosa Lesu. and Lota Bi-osmiana Storer, as these latter differ 
among themselves ; and that thej constitute three species or only one. 
Here, for the first time, we have a critical and comparative examina- 
tion, but it does not satisfy the writers who follow him, or they 
seem, indeed, not to have known his account. 

As to Lota compressa Lesu., Mr. Thompson was not acquainted 
with it, and, in his turn, he copies the description of Dr. Storer. 

The Natural History of the Fbhes of New York appeared also in 
1842. Lota maculosa is there inserted with a long list of synonyms, 
but without comparative criticism. Then characters are noticed, to 
which nobody had made allusion before. Such are : " Pectorals lony, 
pointed ; their tips reaching nearly to the base of the first dorsal " — 
^^ first dorsal small, subtriangular ; "" and a figure to confirm them. 
Dr. Dekay says, however, he is acquainted with Lota compressa only 
through the descriptions of Lesueur and Storer, from whom be may 
have borrowed his. But whence comes his figure, which exists 
nowhere else, so far as I know ? Dr. Dekay describes and figures also 
another species, which he considers as new, under the name of Lota 
inornata from the Hudson River, and which Dr. Storer considers as 
synonymous with his Lota Brosmiana, of New Hampshire.* Cer- 
tainly, if this identity is real, it does not exist in the figures which 
these two authors have published, nor even in their descriptions, since 
the one, {Lota inornata Dekay,) has the upper jaw larger than 
the lower, while in the other {Lota Brosmiana Storer) both jaws 
are equal. And there are still other differences. 

In such a state of things, it was impossible for me to establish the syn- 
onymy and to compare critically the species without original specimens 
for comparison. Possessing myself only such specimens as I procured 
at Lake Superior, I will describe, provisionally, that species under the 
name of Lota maculosa, without synonymy, and I will limit myself 
to indicating the analogies and the differences which I have observed, 
I will not say in the published figures, but in the original descriptions 
of the authors. The question, thus restored to its true position, may 
in future lead to further progress. 

« Synops. N. Am. Fishes, p. 219. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Lota maculosa. 



The description which best coincides with our specimens is that of 
Mr. Thompson of the Lota of Lake Champlain, and which we have 
cited above. The wood-cut which he gives of it, though much 
reduced, sustains this assertion. I will remark one diiference onlj, 
which is, that the snout is more pointed, and the upper lip slopes more 
over the lower jaw than in the specimens from Lake Superior. The 
first dorsal fin seems also to be higher than the second. 

Dr. Richardson not having figured the species which he describes, 
we have compared attentively his description with our specimens, 
to which it applies in a general way, as also in several peculiarities ; 
nevertheless, we would direct the attention of ichthyologists to the 
following differences : The head is proportionally more elongated, 
forming only the fifth part of the whole length ; the snout more pointed, 
the upper jaw somewhat longer than the lower ; this latter is besides 
considerably exceeded by the upper lip. The distance which separates 
the centre of the orbit from the end of the snout is equivalent to three 
lengths of the axis of the orbit itself ; this axis is contained four times 
and a half on the space which extends from this same point of departure 
to the posterior margin of the operculum, being contained seven times 
and a half in the whole length of the head. The eyes themselves are 
besides situated at the upper margin of the face, so as to be seen from 
above. The labials are an inch and a half long, the intermaxillaries 
one inch. These measures, compared with those which Dr. Richardson 
gives, show us remarkable differences in the proportions of these 
bones. The posterior extremity of the labials is besides curved 
forwards. 

Among the fins I find the second dorsal, if not higher than the first, 
at least as high. The anal is generally lower, though having the 
same form, and like the second dorsal, rounded and somewhat higher 
at its termination. The anal terminates a little before the dorsal. 
The ventrals have seven rays ; the second is the longest. Formula : 

Br. 7 ; D. 11-76 ; A. 64 ; C. 45 ; V. 7 ; P. 19. 

The skin which envelopes the fins is thick, a character which 
we find again in Lota compressa, which seems, however, to be a much 
smaller species. 



326 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

The head is much depressed. The body is suhcyllndrical from the 
occiput to the anus. The tail is also much compressed, and its 
height diminishes quite insensibly from before backwards. 

The color is dark olive brown above, mottled with blackish brown ; 
sowewhat yellow about the lower part of the abdomen, and whitish 
underneath. 

From Michipicotin. 

It is very difficult to decide what are the characters which dis- 
tinguish Lota co7)ij)ressa from Lota maculosa. It seems that the spe- 
cies is generally smaller. Lesueur gives to it an upper jaw longer 
than the lower, a character alternately given to it and L. maculosa 
by the authors who have written after him. Whether the body is pro- 
portionally shorter is to be verified anew, as also the greater com- 
pression of the sides, and the back, which is said to be highest at 
the basis of the dorsal fins. Lesueur adds, as a character, a more 
elongated caudal, an equal dorsal and anal. 

The description of Dr. Storer, the only one which has been made 
from nature since Lesueur, as it is not comparative, does not solve 
the question. 

SALMONIDiE. 

So long as the family of Salmonldae remains circumscribed as it 
was established by Cuvier, it seems to be a type almost universally 
diffused over the globe, occurring equally in the sea and in freshwater, 
so that we are left almost without a clue to its natural relations to the 
surrounding world. Joh. Miiller, working out some suggestions of 
prince Canine, and introducing among them more precise anatomical 
characters, had no sooner subdivided the old family of Salmonidae 
into his Salmonidse, Characini and Scopelini, than light immediately 
spread over this field. Limited now to such fishes as, in addition to 
the mere general character of former Salmonidae, have a false gill on 
the inner surface of the operculum, the Salmonidoe appeared at 
once as fishes peculiar to the northern temperate region, occurring 
in immense numbers all around the Arctic Sea, and running regu- 
larly up the rivers at certain seasons of the year to deposit their 
spawn, while some live permanently in freshwater. We have thus 
in the true Salmonidae actually a northern family of fishes, which, 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 327 

when found in more temperate regions, occurs there in clear mountain 
rivers, sometimes very high above the level of the sea, near the limits 
of perpetual snoAV, or in deep, cold lakes. That this family is adapt- 
ed to the cold regions is most remarkably exemplified by the fact 
that they all spawn late in the season, at the approach of autumn 
or winter, when frost or snow has reduced the temperature of the 
water in which they live nearly to its lowest natural point. The 
embryos grow within the egg very slowly for about two months 
before they are hatched ; while fecundated eggs of some other fami- 
lies which spawn in spring and summer, give birth to young fishes a 
few days after they are laid. The Salmonidse, on the contrary, are 
born at an epoch when the waters are generally frozen up ; that is, 
at a period when the maximum of teraperatare is at the bottom of the 
water, where the eggs and young salmons remain among gravel, 
surrounded by a medium which scarcely ever rises above thirty 
or forty degrees. 

It is plain from these statements, and from what we know other- 
wise of the habits of this family, that there is no one upon the globe 
living under more uniform circumstances, and nevertheless the species 
are extremely diversified, and we find pecuhar ones in all parts of 
the world, where the family occurs at all. Thus we find, in Lake 
Superior, species which do not exist in the course of the Mackenzie 
or Saskatchawan, and vice versa, others in the Columbia river which 
differ from those of the Lena, Obi, and Yenisei, while Europe again 
has its peculiar forms. 

Whoever takes a philosophical view of the subject of Natural 
History, and is familiar with the above stated facts, will now under- 
stand why, notwithstanding the specific distinctions there are between 
them, the trouts and whitefishes are so uniform all over the globe. 
It must be acknowledged that it is owing to the uniformity of the phys- 
ical conditions in which they occur, and to which they are so admira- 
bly adapted by their anatomical structure, as well as by their instinct. 
Running up and down the rapid rivers and mountain currents, leajAng 
even over considerable w^aterfalls, they are provided with most pow- 
erful and active muscles, their tail is strong and fleshy, and its bioad 
basis indicates that its power is concentrated ; it is like the paddle of 
the Indian who propels his canoe over the same waters. Their 



328 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

mouth is large, their jaw strong, their teeth powerful, to enable them 
to secure with ease the scanty prey with which they meet in these 
deserts of cold water, and nevertheless, though we cannot but be 
struck by the admirable reciprocal ada])tation between the structure 
of the northern animals and the physical condition in which they 
live, let us not mistake these adaptations for a consequence of physical 
causes, let us not say that trouts resemble each other so much 
because they originated under uniform conditions ; let us not say 
they have uniform habits because there is no scope for diversity ; 
let us not say they spawn during winter, and rear their young under 
snow and ice, because at that epoch they are safer from the attacks 
of birds of prey ; let us not say they are so intimately connected 
with the physical world, because physical powers called them into 
existence ; but let us at once look deeper ; let us recognize that this 
uniformity is imparted to a wonderfully complicated structure ; they 
are trouts with all their admirable structure, their peculiar back 
bones, their ornamented skull, their powerful jaws, their movable 
eyes, with their thick, fatty skin and elegant scales, their ramified 
fin-rays, and with all that harmonious complication of structure which 
characterizes the type of trouts, but over which a uniform robe, as it 
were, is spread in a manner not unlike an almost endless series of 
monotonous variations upon one brilliant air, through the uniformity 
of which we still detect the same melody, however disguised, under 
the many undulations and changes of which it is capable. 

The instincts of trouts are not more controlled by climate than 
those of other animals under different circumstances. They are only 
made to perform at a particular season, best suited to their organiza- 
tion, what others do at other times. If it were not so, I do not see 
why all the different fishes, living all the year round in the same 
brook, should not spawn at the same season, and finally be transformed 
into one type ; have we not, on the contrary, in this diversity under 
identical circumstances, a demonstrative evidence that there is an- 
other cause which has acted, and is still acting, in the production and 
preservation of these adaptations ; a cause which endowed living 
beings with the power of resisting the equalizing influence of uniform 
agents, though at the same time placing these agents and living beings 
under definite relations to each other ? 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 329 

That trouts are not more influenced by physical conditions than 
-other animals, is apparent from the fact that there are lakes of small 
extent and of most uniform features, in which two or three species 
of trout occur together, each with peculiar habits ; one more migrar 
tory, running up rivers during the spawning season, etc., while the 
other will never enter running waters, and will spawn in quiet places 
near the shore ; one will hunt after its prey, while the other will wait 
for it in ambuscade ; one will feed upon fish, the other upon insects. 
Here we have an example of species with different habits, where 
there would scarcely seem to be room for diversity in the physical 
condition in which they live ; again there are others living together 
in immense sheets of water, where there would seem to be ample 
scope for diversity, among which we observe no great differences, as 
is the case between the Siscowet and the lake trout in the great 
northern lakes. 

If these facts, statements and inductions were not sufficient to 
satisfy the reader of the correctness of my views, I would at once 
refer to another material fact, furnished us by the family of Salmon- 
idge, namely, the existence of two essential modifications of the true 
type of trouts, occurring everywhere together under the same cir- 
cumstances, showing the same general characters, backbone, skull, 
brain, composition of the mouth, intestines, gills, &c., &c.,but differ- 
ing in the size of the mouth, and in the almost absolute want of 
teeth, these groups being that of the whitefishes, Coregoni, and that 
of the true trouts, Salmones. 

Now I ask, where is there, within the natural geographical limits of 
distribution of Salmonidte, a discriminating power between the physi- 
cal elements under which they live, which could have introduced those 
differences ? A discriminating power which, allotting to all, certain 
characters, should have modified others to such an extent as to pro- 
duce a])parently different types under the same modification of the 
general plan of structure. Why should there be, at the same time, 
under the same circumstances, under the same geographical distrib- 
tion, Avhitefishes with the habits of trout, — spawning like them in the 
fall, growing their young like them during winter, — if there were not 
an infinitely wise, supreme Power, if there were not a personal God, 
who, having first designed, created the universe, and modelled our 



330 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

solar system, called successively, at different epochs, such animals into 
existence under the different circumstances prevailing over various 
parts of the globe, as would suit best this general plan, according to 
which man was at last to be placed at the head of creation ? Let us 
remember all this, and we have a voice uttering louder and louder 
the cry which the external world equally proclaims, that there is a 
Creator, an intelligent and wise Creator, an omnipotent Creator of all 
that exists, has existed, and shall exist. 

To come back to the Salmonidse, I might say, that when properly 
studied, there is not a species in nature, there is not a system of 
organs in any given species, there is not a peculiarity in the details 
of each of these systems, which does not lead to the same general 
results, and which is not, on that account, equally worth our con- 
sideration. 

A minute distinction between species is again, above all, the 
foundation of our most extensive views of the whole, and of our 
most sublime generalizations. The species of Salmonidge call partic- 
ularly our attention from the minuteness of the characters upon 
which their distinction rests. Their number in the north of this 
continent is far greater than would be supposed, from the mere 
investigation of those of the great lakes ; but I shall, for the present, 
limit myself to these. 

Salmo fontinalis, Mitch. 

Salmo fontinalis 3Iitch. Tr. Lit. and Philos. Soc. N. Y. 1815, L, 
^2>b.— Richards. Fn. Bor. Amer. 1836, III., 176, PL 83, f. 1, and 
PI. 87, f. ±—Storer Rep. 1839, p. lOi^.—Kirtl. Rep. Zool. Ohio, 
p. 169 ; and Bost. Journ. N. H. 1843, IV., p. 305, PL 14, f. 2.— 
Thomps. Hist. Verm. 1842, p. \A1.—Dekay N. Y. Fauna 1842, 
p. 235, PL 38, f. 120.—Ayres Bost. Journ. N. H. 1843, IV., 
^n.—Storer Synop. 1846, p. 192.— Cuv. and Val. H. N. des 
Poiss. 1848, XXI., 266. 

Salmo nigrescens Rafin. Ichth. Ohioens. 1820, p, 45. 

Baione fontinalis Dekay N. Y., Fn. 1842. p. 244, PL 20, f. 58. 

Though this species has been known for a long time and has 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 331 

often been cited, no satisfactory figure of it has yet been published. 
Having, to my great disappointment, been unable to supply this 
deficiency, I will not undertake to give a detailed description of it. 
Those of my readers who desire to know it, Avill have to consult 
the works cited in the synonomy, supplying from one what is not 
furnished by another. In order to complete the history of this fish 
with success, it will be necessary to give a figure of it with all the 
exactness of modern science. 

The color varies as much as in the Sahno Fario of Europe. To 
one of the varieties Rafinesque gave the name of S, nigrescens. 
The physiognomy of the young is somewhat difierent from that of the 
adult, which has induced Dr. Dekay to make a separate genus of it, 
which he calls Baione. At that epoch the body is barred vertically 
with black. There are seven, eight, nine and even ten bands, which 
grow wider and assume the form of circular spots the more the fish 
grows. The teeth are all minute and uniform, in these young speci- 
mens, and have misled Dr. Dekay to view these fishes as the type 
of a distinct genus. We have procured several individuals of two 
and three inches, at Black River, with others of from twelve to 
fifteen inches. 

Salmo namayctjsh, Penn. 

Salmo namaycush Penn. Arct. Zool. 1792, II., 139, — Introd. p. 

cxU. ;— Richards. Fn. Bor. Amer. 1836, III., 179, PI. 79 and PL 

85, f. l.—Kirtl. Rep. Zool. Ohio, p. 195 ; and Bost Journ. N. 

H., 1842, IV., 25, PI. 3, f. 2. 
Salmo amethystus Mitch. Journ. Acad. N. Sc. Philad. 1818, L, 

'^IQ.— Dekay, N. Y. Fn. 1842, p. 240, PI. 76, f. 241.— ;8Wer 

Synops. 1846, p. 193. 
Salar namaycush Cuv. and Val. H. N. Poiss. XXL, 348, 1848. 

This species is well known under the trivial name of " Tyrant of 
the lakes," because of its size and voracity, and is much esteemed 
for food in the countries which it inhabits. As it has been well known 
for a very long time, I will not repeat what has been said by my pre- 
decessors, but shall limit myself to citing a few observations which I 
have been able to make on the living animal. The general color 



382 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

varies with the ground on which it is caught. Those found on a 
muddy bottom are generally grayish, while those from a gravelly bot- 
tom are of a reddish color, with much brighter fins. The amethystine 
color does not show itself distinctly while the fish is swimming, or 
when first caught, but only after being taken from the water, when 
the mucus on the surface begins to dry. The sexes differ in shape, 
the male having a more pointed head than the female, although the 
jaws are of equal length. The dentition, though somewhat stronger 
than in the S. Siscowet, presents generally the same disposition. The 
vomer especially has the same structure ; there is a row of teeth on 
the hinder and rounded margin of the chevron, with a middle row on 
the body of the bone itself. According to Dr. Richardson, there 
should be here a double row of teeth. Probably in growing, they are 
thrown out alternately and obliquely, and thus cause the row to 
appear double. I should not know how to explain otherwise this 
divergence, unless the disposition of the teeth upon this bone be sub- 
ject to great vacations, which seems not to be probable. The 
description of Dr. Dekay is very obscure in relation to the teeth of 
this species. He speaks of a double row of teeth on the vomer and 
the palatines, which is an error, especially with regard to the latter. 
When he says that they are m two series along the labials, of which 
the outer is smaller ayid more numerous, he evidently speaks of the 
palatines and upper maxillary together ; therefore, if the upper max- 
illary and the palatines constitute in his view a single group (labials) 
of two rows, the palatines cannot at the same time have a double 
row. This description may have been copied without being under- 
stood, like the figure itself, which is taken from the Fauna Boreali- 
Americana. 

The small ossicles of the branchial arches are nearly straight and 
denticulate on their outer margins, as in the Salmo Siscowet. The 
bony shields of the pharyngeals are considerably developed, and the 
teeth which cover them arranged like cards, and very prominent. 
There is one behind the tongue, narrow and elongated ; another, but 
somewhat smaller, which corresponds to it, on the vault of the 
palate, and behind these two, and surrounding the large throat, two 
upper and two lower pharyngeal shields. 

This species was mentioned by Pennant, towards the close of 



FISHES OP LAKE SUPERIOR. 333 

the past century, under the name of jS. namai/cush, which must be 
preserved in spite of the more euphonious name which Dr. Mitchill 
gave to it twentj-five years later, even if the character to which this 
latter makes allusion were constant during the whole life of the 
fish. 

Our specimens have been collected all along the northern shores. 

Salmo Siscowet, Agass. 
PI. I., fig. 3. 

Along with the two species of salmons above mentioned. Lake 
Superior furnishes a third, which has not yet been described. 
The inhabitants of the region designate it under the name of tSis- 
covjet, a name which I have thought should be preserved in scientific 
nomenclature. Its general form is stout, broad and thick, more so 
than any species of salmon except the S. Tratta of Central Europe. 
The height of the body vertically, at the anterior ray of the dorsal, 
is equal to one-fifth of the whole length. It descends very insensibly 
towards the head, somewhat more abruptly towards the posterior 
region ; but as far as the anterior margin of the anal it maintains itself 
in proportions which give to the whole of the body a cylindrical 
appearance. A considerable inflexion runs along the insertion of the 
anal, and beneath the tail, whose height exceeds one-third the 
greatest height of the body. The pedicle of the tail is dilated and 
subquadrangular. 

The head forms one-fourth of the whole length, exclusive of the 
lobes of the caudal. The frontal line, at first a little inclined, 
appears broken by a slight depression at the top of the posterior 
margin of the orbit ; thence it descends somewhat rapidly on the 
snout, which is obtuse and rounded, and forms the principal character 
of this species. 

The lower and upper maxillaries, the intermaxillaries and each 
of the palatines have a row of conical and acute teeth. The largest 
are on the lower maxillaries and on the intermaxillaries ; they are 
very slightly curved inwards at their summit. The teeth of the 
palatines must be enumerated next in the order of their relative 



334 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

size, those of the upper maxillaries being the smallest and the most 
curved. The teeth of the vomer are of medimii size, between those 
just mentioned, and somewhat more curved at their summit ; there 
is a row of them on the hinder semicircular margin of the chevron, 
then another row on the middle part of the body of this bone. On 
the tongue the teeth are disposed in a pair of lateral rows ; they are 
as large as on the palatines, and are the most curved of all. 

The small ossicles disposed in rows along the inner margin of the 
branchial arches are slightly convex within, and finely denticulate 
on the outer margin of the curve. On the hinder margin of the 
lingual bone, at the symphysis of the three first branchial arches, 
there is a small, narrow and elongated shield with card-like teeth. 
A similar, but triangular shield is contiguous to the lower pharyn- 
geal. Finally, a third shield is applied to the side of the upper 
pharyngeal. 

The eyes are circular and of medium size. Their diameter is con- 
tained six and a half times in the length of the head, about one 
diameter and a half from the end of the snout to the anterior margin 
of the orbit, and four diameters from the posterior margin. The 
suborbital is composed of five pieces, which form an uninterrupted 
chain from the margin of the skull to the front of the nostrils. The 
first is subtriangular, the summit of the triangle being turned towards 
the side of the eye. The form of the second is an elongated 
square of which the greatest diameter is in the direction of the length 
of the body. The third is more irregular, approaching sometimes to 
the form of a protracted lozenge in the direction of the length of the 
fish : it borders the lower and hinder outline of the eye. The fourth 
is elongated, almost straight, very narrow, and has at its surface a 
row of pores ; it attains the anterior line of the eye. Finally, the 
fifth is equally perforated, and of a very irregular form ; it protects 
the lower margin of the nostrils and rests upon the intermaxillary. 
At the anterior and upper margin of the eye is a small superciliary 
bone. 

The openings of the nostrils are apparently equal, and near each 
other, the hinder being somewhat higher ; they are situated at the 
height of the eye, and nearer to this latter than to the end of 
the snout ; they are protected by two very thin ossicles. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 335 

The opercular apparatus differs considerably from that of S. na- 
maycush ; in the fresh condition it is covered with a thick skin 
which hides the outlines of its bones. The preoperculum is long, of 
the form of a very opened crescent, placed almost vertically ; its 
posterior margin is attenuate and entire ; its lower branch is more 
extended than the upper. The operculum of greater height than 
breadth, is large and notched at the summit, but without prominent 
processes on the rest of its circumference, which is irregularly circu- 
lar ; the posterior middle part, however, has a tendency to make a 
projection ; the lower margin is denticulate. The suboperculum is 
one-third smaller than the operculum, irregularly elliptical, pointed 
at the summit, with an ascending ridge in the form of a fish-hook 
at its articulation. Finally, the interoperculum has the form of a 
long square, curved on the posterior side ; its height is contained 
twice in its length. 

The branchiostegal rays are thirteen in number, their length 
diminishing very gradually from the opercular apparatus beneath the 
throat, where the last is only one-third smaller than the first. This 
latter can scarcely be distinguished from the interoperculum, so thin 
and dilated is it ; it is only a little more narrow, and we remark 
that it has a tendency to bend itself. The curve is stronger on the 
four following, which are still very dilated compared to the eight 
remaining, which are not larger than ordinary rays, and flattened, 
with a more marked elbow on their extremity of insertion, which, 
moreover, is curved inwards. 

The fins on the whole are strong and proportioned to the body 
which they have to support and to move. The dorsal, which is larger 
than in the *S'. namayciish, is higher than it is long, and occupies 
exactly the middle of the back ; its margins are straight. The 
adipose, opposite to the posterior margin of the anal, is narrow, lan- 
ceolate, with an elliptical summit turned backwards. The caudal is 
ample and slightly furcate, much less furcated than in >S'. nainaycnsh. 
The anal is as high as the dorsal, but not as long as this latter, 
though its rays are more numerous ; they are there very dense, and 
the three first are shorter than the fourth ; its terminal margin is 
straight. The ventrals are inserted beneath the dorsal, vertically, 
under the seventh ray ; they do not reach the anus behind ; their 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 

outer circumference is oval. In Salmo namaycusli the ventrals are 
far more backwards than in >S'. Siscoivet. The pectorals are very 
long, yet still they leave a certain distance between their extremity 
and the commencement of the dorsal. 

Br. 18 ; D. 12 ; A. 12-U ; C. 6, I., 9, 8, L, 5, V. 9 ; P. 14. 

The scales, generally small, are a little larger on the lower region 
of the body behind the ventrals. Their general form is elliptical, 
their greatest diameter in the direction of the length of the fish ; 
their smallest diameter measures one-eighth of an inch on specimens 
of two feet in length. Those of the lateral line are proportionally 
more narrow, and perforated with a large canal, which renders this 
line very conspicuous. It follows the middle of the body upon the 
caudal region and rises gradually in advancing towards the head, so 
that in the anterior region it approaches much more to the back than 
to the belly. 

The color varies according to the feeding ground on which it is 
caught, and is brighter during the breeding season, as is gener- 
ally the case among all species of this family. The young have 
transverse bars, which disappear with their growth, like those of 
other species of salmon. 

This also is a fish of high and rich flavor, but so fat as to be almost 
unfit for food, the greater part of it melting down, as it were, in the 
process of cooking. This renders its preservation in alcohol very 
difficult, if not impossible. All the specimens which I brought from 
our excursion have decomposed. They were caught at Michipicotin, 
and occur everywhere along the northern shores. They are particu- 
larly abundant about Isle Royale. 

CoREGONUS, Artedi. 

We shall not treat here of the history and the characters of the 
genus Coregonus in its whole extent. For this I refer my readers to 
the twenty-first volume of the Histoire JSfaturelle des Poissons. I 
shall merely criticise the North American species, which I have been 
enabled to study in nature, refraining from offering conjectures on 
those which remain imperfectly known to me. To delay their revision 



PISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 337 

until Tve possess original specimens, is the only means of preserving 
their nomenclature intelligible. 

The reforms we have proposed to introduce among the species 
described below, are of a nature to excite the attention of the natur- 
alists of this continent, and to induce those who may find them- 
selves in favorable circumstances to observe minutely, and to 
collect materials which may some day serve as the basis for a special 
work on the genus. 

The Coregonus clupeiformis was described for the first time by 
two authors simultaneously, who have each given it a particular 
name. The question of priority might be contested ; and what 
shows that subsequent authors disagreed on this point is, that some 
adopted the name given by Lesueur, others that of Mitchill. Natur- 
alists have now agreed to adopt the name cliqmfoi'mis, it having 
the priority of a few weeks, and being also the more appropriate to 
this species; and the figure of the Fauna of New York, though 
leaving still much to be desired, is however sufficient to distinguish it 
in the present state of science. In the same year, Dr. Kirtland pub- 
lished another figure, Avhich appeared in the Journal of the Natural 
History Society of Boston, IV., PL 9, f. 1. It being much inferior 
to that of Dr. Dekay, I have omitted it in the synonymy ; it seems 
really to me in contradiction with the other quotations. I have cited 
the description, because it is literally copied from Lesueur. I should 
not be surprised however, if the specimens which Dr. Kirtland has 
had under his eye belonged to another species, though it is impossi- 
ble to decide this by means of the figure. Richardson also repro- 
duced the original description of Lesueur, not having seen the 
species himself. 

In truth, the history of this species has remained almost what it 
was in 1818. Dr. Dckay, who has revised the species in nature, 
does not complete its description, limiting himself to a mention of 
the most prominent traits. Finally, M. Valenciennes himself is still 
more brief. I believe, moreover, that he is mistaken Avhen he con- 
siders C. luoidus Rich, as identical with 0. clupeiformis. It would 
rather be with 0. albus Lesu. that it ought to be compared, and to 
which it is nearly related ; but the position o the eye, a smaller 

23 



338 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

mouth, larger maxillaries, and a different conformation of the oper- 
cular apparatus, distinguish it sufficiently. 

All authors, after Lesueur, have been mistaken in the C. albus ; 
this would not be surprising had they nothing to guide them but the 
short description of this author ; but the figure which accompanies it 
leaves no doubt about his species, and the most superficial inspection 
might suffice to give at least an approximate idea of it. In the 
present state of the science I agree that we may confound our O. 
sapidissimus and G. latior in their full-grown condition ; but where 
the question is between so different species as C. albus Lesu., and 
those (for we shall see that there are several) which authors have 
designated under the same name after Lesueur, we may very 
naturally ask ourselves, whether the information given by them has 
been drawn from original sources, or has, perhaps, been published 
under the belief that the fishes commonly designated under the 
name of white-fishes, must all belong to the same species. 

There are two groups of Coregoni ; one having the lower jaw 
longer than the upper, the other having a squarely truncated snout, 
and the upper jaw overlapping the lower. C. alius Lesu. belongs to 
the first of these groups, whilst the Coregoni described under the 
same name by subsequent authors, belong to the second group. Let 
us now review these latter, having no longer to compare them with 
the species of Lesueur. 

Dr. Richardson has described and figured under the name of O. 
albus, a species allied, in certain regards, to our C. sapidissimus and 
C latior ; but I think it cannot be identified either with the one or 
the other, due attention being paid to the differences indicated in 
our descriptions. Dr. Dekay gives this species as the C. albus in his 
New York Fauna ; but not having seen, he says, the species, he 
borrows his information from Dr. Richardson. 

Another species has been mentioned under the name of C. albus, 
by Mr. Thompson. This species is our O. sapidissimus. 

A third species has hitherto been confounded with the preceding, 
to which it approaches in several respects. This is our C. latior. 

Finally, I inquire what may be the O. albus of Kirtland ? The 
figure which he gives of it is different at the same time from those 
pubhshed by Dr. Richardson and Mr. Thompson, so that I do not 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 839 

know to whicli of them to refer it. I should not be surprised to find 
it the type of a particular species. The details of the head not being 
minutely given in the figure, do not allow us to make a direct com- 
parison of them. 

The presence of small teeth on the surface of the tongue is an 
almost universal character in Coregonus, though it is more evident in 
the species in which the lower jaw is longer ; this would be another 
character of this group, which would allow us to associate with it 0. 
Labradoricus and Harengus^ which M. Valenciennes was disposed 
to discard from it. In the species with a truncated snout, and a 
longer lower jaw, we remark that the intermaxillaries have%, row of 
teeth. These differences seem to me of sufiicient value to justify 
the formation of two distinct genera for these fishes. I would pro- 
pose to preserve the name of Coregonus for those species in which 
the snout is prominent, as it was primitively established with refer- 
ence to such species in Europe. The name of Argyrosomus might 
be applied to the other species, with a truncated snout and a promi- 
nent lower jaw. 

The species of this continent may be grouped as follows :* 

Argyrosomus. Coregonus, proper. 

* Coregonus clupeiformis DeKay. * Coregonus sapidissimus Agass. 

" * albus Lesu. " * latior Agass. 

" lucidus Richards. " albus Rich. 

" * Tullibee Rich. " albus Kirtl. 

" * Harengus Rich. " otsego Dekay. 

" Labradoricus Rich. " * quadrilateralis Rich. 



Coregonus clupeiformis, Dekay. 

Salmo clupeiformis Mitch. Amer. Month. Mag. 1818, II., 321. 

( White-fish of the lakes.') 
Coregonus clupeiformis DeKay N. Y. Fna. 1842, p. 248' PI., 

60, f. 198, (common Shad Salmon.') — Owv. et Val. H. N. Poiss. 

1848, XXI., 528, (excl. syn.) 

* The names in t topics indicate species, to be revised. About C. Labradoricus we are 
left in doubt as to its position. We have collected specimens of seven species in Lake 
Superior, which are marked here with an asterisk (*). 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 

COREGONUS Artedi Lesu. Journ, Ac. N. Sc. Philad. 1818, 1., 231, 
{Rerring Salmon,') — Richards. Fn. Bor. Am. 1836, III., 203. — 
Kirtl. Bost. Journ., N. H., 1842, IV., 2Zl.—Storer Sjnops. 
1846, p. 199. 

Possessing only a female individual of this species, our description 
must not be considered as absolute, and applicable to the males and 
young, for their form and general outlines. Dr. Dekay has already 
made the observation that the males are more elongated than the 
females, and that, besides, the latter are deeper and more compressed; 
which is generally the case in the Salmonidae. 

The general form is regular, spindle-like, neither thick and short, 
nor slender. The sides are much compressed ; the line of the back 
is nearly straight, somewhat sloping on the nape and the head as 
likewise on the region of the adipose fin, and raised on the caudal. 
The curve of the belly is uniform from the lower face of the head to 
the termination of the anal ; the lower side of the tail is straight or 
slightly concave. The greatest height of the body, taken before the 
dorsal, is contained five times in the whole length, including most of 
the caudal fin. The thickness is less than half of the height. It is 
about the same on the whole abdominal region and the thorax, dimin- 
ishing gradually towards the tail. 

The head is small, compressed like the sides, flattened above, 
rounded below, pointed before. Its length equals the height of the 
body, that is to say, it forms one-fifth of the length. The eyes are 
large and circular, separated from the extremity of the jaw by a 
diameter of their orbit, and by twice and a half this diameter, from 
the posterior margin of the opercular apparatus. The nostrils are 
nearer to the snout than to the orbit. The opening of the mouth is 
of middle size, of a quadrangular form ; the lower jaw considerably 
exceeds the upper, and rises shghtly at its extremity, which is round- 
ed ; its margin contains a few fine indentations, which seem to 
indicate teeth ; the intermaxillaries have very fine teeth. The sur- 
face of the tongue seems to have two longitudinal rows on its middle 
shield, if we can call teeth small acute points. The tongue itself is 
pointed, and does not attain the inner margin of the intermaxil- 
laries. The maxUlaries are elongated, of an oblong form, with entire 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. §41 

margins ; their posterior extremity not attaining a vertical line whicli 
would descend through the centre of the eyeball. The mandibles, 
situated on the inner margin of the maxillaries, are small and narrow, 
with an undulated outhne terminated above by a slender and acute 
process. The suborbitaries cover two-thirds of the face. 

The preoperculum is concave on the middle of its ascending 
branch ; its posterior angle is rounded, and extended to the loM'er 
margin of the face, and, conjointly with the lower branch, nearly 
covers entirely the prolongation of the interoperculum towards the 
lower maxillary. The part of the interoperculum which remains un- 
covered, is triangular ; the upper angle rises before the operculum. 
This latter is higher than it is broad above, straight or slightly con- 
cave,^ rounded behind, oblique and straight on the suboperculum, 
which is the most regular of the bones of this apparatus, being arched 
on its lower edge, and somewhat more narrow behind than before. 

The branchial fissures continue beneath the head, the branchioste- 
gal membrane of the right side unites to that of the left on the region 
of the isthmus, where they are contiguous, the first jointed beneath 
the second. The branchiostegal rays, eight in number, are very 
close, flattened, and almost straight. 

The scales are proportionall}'^ large, of subcircular form, the inner 
margin irregular and angular. The largest occupy the middle of 
the trunk and the abdominal region, where they measure more than 
a quarter of an inch ; they diminish towards the thoracic arch, the 
back and the tail, where they are smallest. On the middle Une of 
the belly their form is much elongated and elliptical. Their termi- 
nation is very remarkable on the basis of the caudal, resembling 
somewhat the fork of this fin by the concave fine they form. The 
lateral line is near the middle, rather near to the back, and is slightly 
inflected on the abdomen by a very protracted curve. 

The dorsal fin, situated on the middle of the back, is much higher 
than it is long, and its margins are straight ; its first ray is short 
and simple ; the second does not reach beyond two-thirds of the 
height ; it is articulated, but not bifurcated. The adipose fin is long 
and narrow. The anal, longer and less high than the dorsal, is con- 
cave on its terminal margin ; it somewhat exceeds the adipose fin 
backwards ; its height somewhat exceeds its length. The caudal is 



84^ 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



deeply furcated ; its lobes are pointed. The ventrals are large, tri- 
angular, regular, the outer margin somewhat longer than the inner ; 
their extremity is not an inch from the anus ; they are inserted on 
the lower face of the body, and very near each other ; their base 
of insertion is rounded ; the cutaneous prolongation of their upper 
margin is much elongated. The pectorals are elongated and pointed. 

Br. 8 ; D. 1, 11 ; A. II, 13 ; C. 7, I, 10, 9, I, 7 ; V. I, 11 ; 
P. 16. 

This species is from the Pic ; but occurs everywhere along the 
northern shores. 

COREGONUS ALBUS, LeSU. 

CoREGONUs ALBUS Lesu. Joum. Acad. N. Sc. Philad. 1818, 1., 232 
(figured.) 

The general form is elegantly elongated, lanceolate, with very reg- 
ular outlines. The curve of the back is similar to that of the belly, 
except that the space on the back, which extends from the nape of 
the neck to the dorsal, is more arched, whilst, on the belly, it is most 
arched between the ventrals and the anal. However, in young 
individuals from five to eight inches long, these two lines present the 
greatest uniformity. The body is regularly compressed ; the greatest 
height before the dorsal is contained four times and a half in the 
length, reckoned from the end of the snout to the end of the scales on 
the caudal. The thickness is equal to half of the height. 

The head is conical, pointed at its extremity, and more compressed 
than the body, attenuated below ; it forms the fifth part of the 
length, excluding the caudal. The skull is rather flattened than 
convex ; it is sloping as much as the lower surface is raised. The 
eyes, very large and circular, are situated at the distance of their 
diameter from the end of the snout, and of twice and a half this same 
diameter from the posterior margin of the opercular apparatus. The 
suborbital bones, very much developed, encroach upon almost the 
whole face, of which a very small and narrow space is left bare above 
the anterior branch of the preoperculum as far as the posterior ex- 
tremity of the maxillaries. The nostrils open on the upper face of the 
rostrum, at equal distances from its extremity and the anterior margin 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 843 

of the orbit. The mouth is large in comparison to the other species ; 
•when open, its form is that of a quadrangular tunnel, measuring 
seven-eighths of an inch vertically, and one and three-eighths inches 
transversely : it contains no teeth. But on the other hand, there are 
two rows of rudimentary teeth on the tongue ; in order to see them 
the membrane of the surface must be removed. The tongue itself is 
narrow and pointed. The lower jaw is longer than the upper ; its 
extremity is rounded and slightly raised. The intermaxiUaries are 
small ; the maxillaries oblong and elongated, attaining, with their pos- 
terior extremity, the anterior margin of the eyeball. The labials are 
one half smaller, and of the same form, having a small point at their 
anterior extremity. 

The outer circumference of the opercular apparatus is rounded and 
semicircular, and scarcely shows a tendency to undulate in the margin 
of the suboperculum. The operculum would be triangular were 
it not for the curve of its upper and hinder margin ; the lower mar- 
gin, contiguous to the suboperculum, is very oblique. The interoper- 
culum attains the lower angle of the operculum ; its hinder angle 
is rounded, subtriangular ; its anterior branch is completely covered 
by the preoperculum, which is very wide at its angle. 

The branchiostegal apparatus is little developed, and arranged as 
in G. clupeiformis. There are seven very close, short, and flat- 
tened rays. 

The scales are proportionally large, easily falling off in individuals 
fifteen inches long ; the largest are those covering the sides near the 
lateral line', which measure six-eighths of an inch in the longitudinal 
direction, and somewhat more than four in the transverse. On the 
abdomen the proportions change ; they are somewhat higher than long, 
and are sensibly oblong with their greatest diameter oblique. Beneath 
the belly they are, as usual, much elongated. The lateral line is near 
the middle of the body, somewhat nearer to the back than to the belly : 
at its origin it rises above the operculum ; it is straight along the tail. 
The termination of the scales on the caudal presents the same pecu- 
liarity as in Q. clupeiformis. 

The dorsal is on the middle of the back, its height somewhat ex- 
ceeding its length, and its upper margin straight. The adipose fin 
is oblong, and elongated, exactly opposite to the hinder margin of the 



344 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

anal. The anal itself is much longer than high, and the disproportion 
between the anterior and the posterior margin is greater than on the 
dorsal ; the outer margin is concave. The caudal is furcated ; ita 
lobes are pointed. The ventrals are very near each other, and 
shaped as in 0. clupeiformis, and the cutaneous prolongation of 
their upper margin is long and triangular. The pectorals, little 
longer than the ventrals, are oblong and less pointed than in C. clu- 
peiformis. 

Br. 7; D. 11. 10; A. II. 11; C. 8, 1. 9, 9,1. 7 ; V. 11 ; P. 17. 

Lesueur did not give the dimensions of his fish : those which I 
have procured do not exceed fifteen and a half inches, though I have 
seen a numerous series of them. I do not know whether they 
attain a larger size. 

This species is common about the Pic ; but I have also secured 
specimens from various localities along the northern shores of the 
lake. 

COREGONUS SAPIDISSIMUS, AgaSS. 

CoREGONUS ALBUS TJiomps. N. H. Verm. 1842, 1., 143, (wood-cut) 
(Wfiite-fisli or Lake shad.') 

We take as the type of this species the description and the figure of 
Mr. Thompson, which though much reduced, gives a clear idea of it. 
We have several individuals twenty-two inches in length, the size 
of those which Mr. Thompson himself has described. A complete 
series of young individuals enables us to give a full description, and 
in order to render it more intelligible we shall begin with the adult. 

The general form is slender, the sides compressed, the back and 
belly prominent. The space contained between the anterior margin 
of the dorsal and the occiput is much arched, convex ; and the nape of 
the neck itself is sometimes very prominent. From the dorsal the 
line of the back descends abruptly on the tail ; it is somewhat de- 
pressed immediately behind the adipose fin, and rises somewhat on 
the insertion of the candal. The ventral line is almost uniformly 
convex, but the region situated between the ventrals and pectorals is 
somewhat more prominent. This line becomes very oblique and 
ascendant beneath the thoracic region and the head. The greatest 



PISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 

height of the trunk corresponds to a vertical line along the middle of 
the space between the pectorals and the ventrals ; it is contained 
about three times in the length, exclusive of the caudal. The 
thickness at the middle of the trunk corresponds to the height as one 
to two ; it is somewhat less anteriorly, and diminishes gradually 
towards the caudal region. The head is proportionally small, com- 
pressed laterally, pointed. Its upper surface slopes as much as the 
lower rises, so that in adult individuals it appears disproportioned to 
the development of the trunk, of which it forms only a very small pro- 
portion. Its length, however, is one-fifth of the whole length, the 
caudal included. The middle surface of the skull on the suture of 
the frontals, is slightly conical, and causes the two halves of the skull 
to appear inclined towards the eyes. These latter are large and 
subcircular ; the hinder margin of their orbit is at an equal distance 
between the end of the snout and the free margin of the operculum. 
The suborbital bones cover the whole space between the orbit and 
the upper region of the operculum, but leave bare the lower half of 
the cheeks ; they form a continuous series below the eyes as far as 
the snout, where this latter elongates itself over the labials, which it 
receives beneath its lower margin. The nostrils are somewhat 
nearer to the orbit than to the extremity of the snout. This latter is 
cut obliquely, and slopes over the lower jaw, which shuts within the 
intermaxillaries. The mouth is moderate. The intermaxillaries are 
small, and occupy only the extremity of the rostrum ; they have a 
row of very small teeth, flexible like bristles. The labials are very 
short, thin, elongated, and attain the anterior margin of the orbit ; 
they have on their termination a small shield, which is bony, pearl- 
hke and included in the skin. The lower jaw seems to be unprovided 
with teeth, at least we cannot observe any either with the magnifying 
glass or with the touch. The branches of the lower maxillaries dilate 
in the form of a very thin blade, which in the state of rest shuts 
itself up under the suborbital bones. At the anterior margin of this 
blade we remark a cutaneous expansion, a kind of lip, which is at. 
tached to the posterior and terminal margin of the labials, and forms 
thus the angle of the mouth. The tongue is short and broad, free 
only on its anterior and lateral outline ; its surface, though seeming 
to be smooth, has some irregular rows of small asperities, which are 



346 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

sometimes perceived only after removing the investing membrane. 
The operculum is sub triangular and large, when we consider that the 
upper and hinder margins pass from one to the other by a curve ; 
the lower margin is straight and oblique, and as long as the anterior 
margin is high. The suboperculum is arched on its whole circum- 
ference, and makes a projection beyond the operculum. The 
interoperculum, almost completely covered by the preoperculum, 
presents externally only a small triangular surface, and a small nar- 
row band below the lower branch of the preoperculum ; though in 
reality, this bone is as long as the suboperculum, but less broad, having 
the form of a very acute triangle, of which the summit would be on 
the anterior side. 

The branchial openings are very ample, and join each other at the 
lower surface of the head. The branchiostegal membrane, whose office 
it is to shut this fissure conjointly with the opercular apparatus, is 
proportionally little developed ; it contains commonly nine, some- 
times ten very crowded, flattened and almost straight rays. 

The scales are of middle size in proportion to that of the fish. The 
largest are situated beneath the belly, the smallest under the throat, 
the thoracic belt and the caudal region. Those of the lateral line 
are somewhat smaller than those of the adjacent rows. Their form 
is generally subcircular or irregularly quadrangular, but their verti- 
cal diameter has a slight tendency to surpass the longitudinal diame- 
ter. This peculiarity is especially striking on the abdominal region, 
where really the scales are oblong and of a height sensibly greater 
than their length ; at the same time that their outlines become more 
regular and nearly oval. Their imbrication has even here some- 
thing peculiar in being less close ; the rows appear independent, and 
give to the fish a barred aspect. The outlines of those of the late- 
ral line are the most irregular. The outer margin is in all more or 
less circular and entire. The lateral line itself is nearly straight and 
nearer to the back than to the belly ; it begins from the upper angle 
of the operculum and extends itself to the middle of the caudal. 

The anterior margin of the dorsal fin corresponds to the middle of 
the space contained between the extremity of the snout and the basis of 
the caudal ; the fourth and fifth rays are the longest ; the first two 
short and rudimentary spines are applied against the third, which is 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 347 

simple but articulated, and almost as long as the following ; being 
higher than it is long, this fin has a triangular form on account of its 
posterior margin, which is low and inclines on the back. The adi- 
pose is broad, covered with small scales on its basis and opposite to 
the posterior half of the anal, of which it does not attain the extrem- 
ity. The anal, as long as it is high, occupies the middle of the space 
between the anus and the basis of the caudal ; it has, like the dorsal, 
two spinous rudimentary rays in its anterior margin, and one soft ray 
more. The caudal is furcated and ample ; small scales encroach 
upon its basis. The ventrals are large, with their terminal margin 
straight ; they are almost as long as the dorsal is high ; the anterior 
margin opposite to the twentieth ray of the dorsal contains a small 
spinous rudiment hidden beneath its membrane ; the cutaneous appen- 
dix of the upper margin is very small. The pectorals are elongated, 
spindle-like, and proportionally small. 

Br. 9 ; D. II. 11 ; A. II. 12 ; C. 7, 1. 9, 8, I. 7 ; V. 12 ; P. 
16. 

During the early age, when its size does not exceed eight inches, 
the slender form is the predominant character of this fish. The line 
of the back and that of the belly being then very little prominent, and 
the outline of the head passing in direct continuation to that of the 
body, there results a harmonious whole in the proportions of these two 
regions. The compression of the body is already very marked ; the 
head is already pointed and forms one-fifth of the whole length, not in- 
cluding the caudal fin. The rostrum is truncated but rounded, and 
exceeds the lower jaw. The nostrils are placed at equal distances 
between its extremity and the eye. The greatest height slightly ex- 
ceeds the length of the head. The characteristic form of the fins may 
already be remarked ; there being one ray more or less in the one or 
the other of the fins. The ventrals are placed somewhat more for- 
wards relatively to the dorsal, their anterior margin being perpendicu- 
lar to the fifth or sixth of its rays. The same complete development 
is also observed in the opercular apparatus ; the operculum alone pre- 
sents this slight difference, that its height sometimes exceeds a little 
the length of its lower margin ; the breadth of the suboperculum is also 
subject to some variations. The scales at this period are thin and fall 
off easily, but we may recognize already the different characters which 



94M LAKE SUPEKIOR. 

we have signalized above. The lateral line is straight and nearer to 
the back than to the belly. But as soon as the individuals attain a 
length of ten inches, the head becomes declivous, the nape of the 
neck swells, the back rises, the belly becomes more prominent ; but 
the general form is still slender, the head is in harmonious propor- 
tion with the trunk, of which it forms already one-fifth of the length, 
including half of the caudal. The rostrum becomes somewhat more 
prominent and more abrupt. The height of the body exceeds haw- 
ever already the length of the head. 

When individuals attain fourteen inches the back and the nape of 
the neck are very convex, and the head very dechvous, the belly 
prominent,, and from this moment the head appears disproportioned to 
the trunk, and is found to form exactly one-fifth of the whole length, 
the caudal excluded, as we have seen in the adult. The height of 
the body is contained four times in its length. The scales are 
still thin and fall off easily, but they already begin to be more adhe- 
rent than during the preceding stages. The middle surface of the 
tongue is armed with small asperities as in the adult ; and the intermax- 
illaries have also that row of fine teeth which we have indicated 
above. 

This species is the common white-fish of Lake Superior, of which 
so large numbers are caught and salted every year. It is one of the 
most palatable fishes of the freshwaters of the American continent. 
It is found in large shoals all over the lake. 

COREGONUS LATIOR, AgaSS. 

Hitherto confounded with the preceding, with which it has a great 
affinity, this species differs, however, sufficiently to justify its separa- 
tion, as I hope to show. Possessing young and adult individuals, I 
shall follow in relation to them the method which I have already 
adopted, pointing out first the difference existing between adult speci- 
mens, and finally adding the peculiar traits of the young. I will 
here mention that the adults differ in appearance less than the young, 
— among which, the difference at first sight is most striking. 

The adult individual which I have before me measures nineteen 
inches. The general form reminds us of that of C. sapidissimus. As 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 349 

in this latter, the back is arched from the occiput, but the curve is 
more uniform, th^ nape of the neck being less prominent, and the 
belly also less swollen. The body is thicker and stouter than in the 
C. sapidissimus, compressed, fusiform ; the greatest height, which is 
measured vertically at the anterior margin of the dorsal, is contained 
four times in the length, the caudal included. The lines of the back 
and belly come near each other on the tail, without abrupt transition ; 
they continue on the head, without rising much on the lower face, 
and without lowering much on the upper face, though the skull is 
depressed and slightly sloping. The head, which is thicker and 
stouter, forms one-fifth of the whole length, including the caudal. 
It is less pointed than in the preceding species, and the rostrum 
more obtuse, less exceeding the lower jaw. The'mouth is somewhat 
larger, but constructed in the same manner ; that is to say, the 
ascending branches of the lower maxillary shut themselves up beneath 
the suborbital bones, and there is a cutaneous appendix at the anterior 
margin, and a kind of lips, which form the angles of the mouth by 
uniting with the labials. These latter are broader than long, passing 
beyond the anterior margin of the orbit. Their terminal extremity 
has likewise the long and pear-like shield, which we have indicated in 
C. sapidissimus. The lower jaw, again, is surrounded with a folded 
lip, imitating a border of fringes. We have remarked no trace 
of teeth on the intermaxillaries, and without deciding upon their 
absence, they were at least obliterated so as to render them doubtful. 
The tongue is broad and shows no trace of asperities at its surface. 
The eyes are large, almost circular, and placed in the same relative 
position. The nostrils are nearer to the orbits than to the extremity 
of the rostrum. The suborbitaries present no remarkable difference, 
unless it be, perhaps, that they encroach less on the cheeks. 

In the opercular apparatus, we remark that the operculum is 
rather quadrangular, and the suboperculum more contracted at its 
posterior extremity, which renders its lower margin more oblique. 
The interoperculum is somewhat more uncovered. 

The fissure of the gills is the same, but the branchiostegal appara- 
tus is more developed and the rays more bent ; their actual number 
is eight. 

The scales are somewhat larger than in the preceding species, and 



350 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

present about the same general form, but their height surpasses 
their length. Generally more uniform on the different regions, they 
are, however, larger on the middle of the trunk, those of the middle 
line being in other respects smaller than the adjacent ones, as is 
the case for the most of the species. Those of the abdomen affect 
not a linear disposition, independent from the whole, but all appear 
as uniformly imbricated. Beneath the belly and the tail they elon- 
gate themselves to the form of an ellipsis with tortuous outlines. 
The lateral line, slightly arched, follows the outlines of the back, 
to which it is nearer than to the belly. The fins on the whole are 
much more developed than in the 0. sajjidissimus ; their general 
form and their relative position are sensibly the same. We remark, 
however, that the height of the dorsal is greater in proportion to its 
length, and its posterior margin is straighter. The adipose fin, 
equally covered with small scales on its basis, is opposite the termina- 
tion of the anal. This latter is triangular, as long as it is high, but 
less raised than the dorsal. The caudal is deeply furcated. The 
ventrals, broad and oblong, are rounded on their terminal margin, 
and contain the strongest rays. The pectorals are elliptical, and 
longer and broader than in the preceding species, and from the 
stouter form of the body their terminal extremity is nearer to the 
ventrals. 

Br. 8 ; D. III., 11 ; A, II. 11 ; C. 7, 1., 9, 8, I., 7 ; V., 11 ; P. 
15. 

Whoever doubts the validity of this species should only cast a 
glance on two series of young individuals belonging to both species. 
We have noted above the peculiar traits of the C. sapidissimus, and 
it will be remembered that we have insisted upon their slender and 
elongated form. The most striking contrast exists when we compare 
them with the short, high and stout form of this species. 

When this fish has attained the size of seven inches, the height, 
■which exceeds the length of the head, is contained four times in the 
length of the body, the caudal excluded. The sides are much com- 
pressed ; the thickness is only one-third of the height. The structure 
of the head, the form and the development of the fins, are in perfect 
conformity with the adult. We observe that the rostrum, which is 
truncated, scarcely exceeds the lower jaw. The form of the buccal 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 351 

opening is quadrangular as in the adult. The intermaxillaries have 
a row of very fine teeth ; there are teeth even on the margin of the 
lower jaw, but more difficult to perceive even with the magnifying 
glass. The surface of the tongue is prickled with small, very acute 
asperities, like the teeth of the intermaxillaries. The eyes are very 
large ; the distance which separates them from the end of the snout 
does not equal their diameter ; the nostrils occupy the middle of this 
space. 

The scales, which are stronger and larger, as we have already 
seen, easily fall ofi"; we may already signalize in them the same pe- 
cuHarities which we have seen in the adult. The lateral line is 
straight and approaching slightly more to the back than to the belly. 

When ten inches in length, this fish acquires an increasing height ; 
the height, taken before the dorsal, is contained exactly four times in 
the length, the caudal included, and the head has almost the propor- 
tions of the adult. The body is very compressed and flattened ; its 
thickness is contained three times and a half in the height. The snout 
is somewhat more prominent, as in the preceding age, though remjivix- 
ing more truncated and shorter, as in the C. sapidissimus. The 
scales grow gradually firmer ; those of the upper half of the body 
somewhat shorter than those of the lower half. The fins themselves 
grow more prominent. The species is common along the northern 
shore of Lake Superior, where it is found with C. sapidissimus. I 
have collected a large number of specimens at the Pic. 

COREGONUS QUADRILATERALIS, Richards. 

Among the Corcgoni collected at Lake Superior there is one very 
similar to C. quadrilateralis of Dr. Richardson, though I have yet 
doubts as to its identity. The question can only be decided by 
comparison of specimens from the localities where the author of the 
Fauna Boreali-Americana collected his. I have already noticed 
slight difierences in the scales, in the structure of the fins, in the 
opercular and branchiostegal apparatus, and in the proportions of the 
body ; difierences which depend, perhaps, upon the age and size, and 
which I have not been able to verify in all my specimens, they being 
below the dimensions which Richardson assigns to his species. I 



352 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

have endeavored to compare them by means of reduction, but I soon 
perceived that I could not arrive in this way at a precise determina- 
tion, especially as the proportions of the different regions of the figure 
of Eichardson do not fully agree with the measures which he gives of 
them in the text. The formula of the fins which I have taken from 
an individual of fourteen inches, is : 

Br. 6 ; D. Ill, 11 ; A. II, 10 ; C. 7, 1, 9, 8, 1, 6 ; V. 11 ; P. 16. 

The scales ot the lateral line, though smaller than the adjacent 
rows, do not appear to me so absolutely truncated as Dr. Richardson 
expressly says they are in his species. Their size on the sides equals, 
if it does not surpass, four- eighths of an inch, and on a surface of an 
inch square we may count as many as eight. This fact has appeared 
to me the most prominent. 

Richardson reports that when Cuvier sent him the specimens 
which he had submitted to his examination, the label indicated that 
he, (Cuvier,) had a related species from Lake Ontario, but we do 
not find it mentioned by M. Valenciennes in the Histoire Naturelle 
des Poissons. It is perhaps to this species of Lake Ontario that our 
specimens ought to be referred. Sir John Richardson, having seen 
recently the specimen described above, has himself offered doubts re- 
specting its identity with his C. quadrilateralis. 

Cyprinoids. 

This is a numerous, but well circumscribed family, whose striking 
peculiarities are very obvious. I am not aware that any of these fishes 
have ever been noticed in the waters of the southern hemisphere ; 
nor do they extend anywhere far beyond the limits of the temperate 
zone, as it is well ascertained that they are most numerous in the 
rivers and lakes of Central Europe and Central Asia and Northern 
America. Indeed, it is so much their natural home, that they do not 
seem to occur in the northernmost freshwater streams, nor any- 
where in the tropics, except in very great altitudes, where recently 
a few have been found in the Andes. The sea is almost entirely 
destitute of fishes of this family ; a few species, however, occur in 
brackish waters. 

The family of Cyprinoids affords another example of the fact, that 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 353 

the species of animals are circumscribed within narrow limits in their 
geographical distribution. From the great number which have already 
been described, it is plain that almost every lake and every river 
has species of its own ; but, nevertheless, there is a great uni- 
formity among these fish all over the world ; for the carps of China 
and those of Europe are very similar ; so are the little white-fishes 
of the Nile and those of other basins. But however uniform 
these fishes may be in the main, we cannot help observing that 
among them there are peculiar groups, located in particular parts 
of the world, for instance, the Catostomi, all over the freshwaters of 
America. The small bearded species are very numerous in Europe, 
and, in general, in the Old World ; species with beards occur there 
more extensively than on the American continent.* Again, the types 
with a large dorsal are Extensively distributed, but are almost all extra 
American. The species which occur at great altitudes, as those from 
the lakes of tropical America, are so peculiar as to differ decidedly 
from all other Cyprinidoe, being devoid of ventral fins. In Lake Supe- 
rior and the other Canadian lakes there is a considerable variety of 
these fishes, — Catostomi mixed with European types, and a genus 
which has only American representatives. 

The Httle group of Cyprinodonts, which have so universally been 
connected with Cyprinoids, will be found to differ more from Cypri- 
noids than has been supposed. We need only compare the structure 
of their mouths to be satisfied of the difference. There are no repre- 
sentatives of that type in Lake Superior. 

How far it might be advisable to subdivide this family into small 
groups according to their structural differences, remains to be ascer- 
tained. The Catostomi, for instance, are very remarkable for the 
large opening in the centre of their skull, and for the peculiar arrange- 
ment of the teeth in the pharyngeal bone. 



Rhinichthys, Agass. 

I propose to include in the genus Rhinichthys small Catostomi, 
whose essential character is, as the name indicates, to have a conical 

* I would mention, as particularly characteristic of the Old World, the genera Barbus, 
CJobitis, and the allied types. 
2i 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 

prolongation of the rostrum. The mouth is small ; the lips which 
border it are much reduced, smooth, never carunculated, and do 
not extend themselves on the lower jaw under the form of lobes. 
This character is well represented on figure 2 of PI. 2. At the 
angles of the mouth, the upper lips bend slightly forwards to join the 
middle of the branch of the lower maxillary ; they here form a 
small tunnel, on whose outer margin is a small barbel, sometimea 
very difficult to recognize. To this genus we must refer the Lends- 
cus atronasus (Cyprinus atronasus Mitch.^ and L. nasutus Ayres. 
Though the first of these species has not the character of a very 
prominent rostrum, the structure of the mouth, and the presence 
of the barbel, justify this approximation. 

There are still other species of this genus found in the United 
States, yet imperfectly known, which will hereafter also take their 
place here. Anatomical study will doubtless reveal other characters 
than those which external conformation already gives, and will also 
teach us the value of this singular group in the family of Cyprinoids. 
At present I cannot help considering the Rhinichthys of North 
America as a diminutive of the group of the Labeos of Africa and 
the East Indies. 

Rhinichthys marmoratus, Agass. 

PI. II., figs. 1 and 2. 

This species is one of the largest of the genus, at least, of those 
which are as yet known to us. The form is elongated, subcylindrical, 
compressed. The tail preserves just proportions with the trunk; its 
two margins are almost straight. The ventral line is a little convex, 
and rises abruptly at the insertion of the anal. The back is feebly 
arched from the dorsal fin to the nape of the neck, where the slope 
continues rapidly from the skull to the snout. The head is entirely 
smooth ; it is small, conical, and well proportioned to the body, in 
whose whole length it is contained four times. The upper surface ia 
rounded ; the eyes are of medium size, and situated near the upper 
margin of the face, at about an equal distance from the end of the 
rostrum and the upper angle of the operculum. The nostrils are 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 33& 

very large and near the orbits. The rostrum exceeds the lower jaw 
by the whole length of the opening of the mouth. This latter is 
small, semi-eUiptical, when the jaws are closed ; when opened, it has 
the form of a crescent whose circumference would be formed by the 
upper jaw, having below, as a base, the elUptical and rounded outline 
of the lower jaw. The barbel is about a twelfth of an inch long. 

The face and the opercular apparatus are smooth like the head. 
The preoperculum is hidden beneath the fleshy cheeks. The oper- 
culum is large, concave on its anterior margin, rounded on the 
upper ; the lower is straight and oblique, beneath which is the thin 
and narrow subopercular lamina. The interoperculum is triangular 
and more robust. The branchial fissures are small, and extend but 
little to the lower surface of the head, which gives to the isthmus the 
form of a triangle. The branchiostegal membrane contains three 
thin rays, of about equal length, bent and flattened. 

The dorsal fin occupies exactly the middle of the whole length of 
the fish ; its form is quadrangular, higher than long, and has nearly 
straight margins. The caudal is obtusely notched, its lobes are 
rounded. The anal, situated at a small distance backwards from the 
dorsal, is narrow and elongated ; its outer circumference is rounded. 
The ventrals are inserted somewhat before the dorsal ; they are 
small fins of an oblong form, whose extremity reaches to the anus. 
The pectorals are placed very low, have an elliptical form, and are 
more elongated than the ventrals. 

Br. 3; D. II, 9; A. II, 8; C. 5.1,9,8,1,4; Y. 8; P. 14. 

The scales are small and subcircular ; the concentric and radi- 
ating striae are easily seen with a lens. Points of black pigment are 
distributed on their posterior half, and give to the surface of the 
body a punctulated appearance. The lateral Une is in the middle ; 
it is only feebly inflected on the abdomen. 

The ground color is a reddish brown mottled with black, orange 
and dark green. The black marbling is predominent. A large spot 
of this color occupies the basis of the caudal, where it radiates on 
the rays of this fin. The lips, the margin of the branchiostegal 
membrane, the basis of the pectorals, ventrals and anal are of an 
intense orange-red, which prolongs itself on the rays. The ground of 
the fins is light orange. 



356 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Fig. 1 represents this species of its natural size. 
Fig. 2 is the lower surface of the head magnified, to show the con- 
figuration of the mouth. 

From the Sault St. Mary, where it seems not to be infrequent. 

Catostomus, Lesueur. 

The study of the species of the genus Catostomus has become 
quite as difficult as that of the genus Leuciscus, and for the same 
reason ; the multiplicity of species. There are about thirty described 
or mentioned, very few of which are accessible for comparison. 
Hence, we are left, either to identify species which have only dis- 
tant analogies, or to separate, on the other hand, some which have 
the closest affinities. Which of these two obstacles is the most inju- 
rious to science ? Doubtless the first ; since it leaves science in a 
state of equivocal stability, during which no advance is attempted, 
satisfied, as we are then, with our present attainments. 

In endeavoring to determine the difierent Catostomi from Lake 
Superior, I began by comparing them with species already known 
from the same geographical zone to which they would have the 
nearest relations. One had been known for three quarters of a cen- 
turj as an inhabitant of the gulfs of Hudson's Bay, and was described 
by Forster under the name of Cyprinus Catostomus, which, forty- 
four years later, became the type of the genus Catostomus, with the 
specific appellation of C. Hudsonius, the author of this reform not 
having known the fish otherwise than through the description and 
the figure of Forster. 

In 1823, that is to say, about fifty years after Forster, Dr. Rich- 
ardson gave a detailed description of the C. Hudsonius. He described 
also another under the specific name of Forstenanus, and referred 
to it as a synonymous variety of the preceding, indicated by Forster 
himself. His specimens were from Lake Huron and from Slave 
Lake. 

Among the species of Catostomi which I have brought from Lake 
Superior, there are two which have a very great analogy, in their 
general traits, with O. Hudsonius and Forsterianus. However, in 
comparing them attentively and singly with the descriptions of Dr. 



FISHES OP LAKE SUPERIOR. 357 

Richardson, I was convinced of some differences, respecting the first, 
which I consider as specific. Respecting the second, the question be- 
comes more difficult to solve, as Dr. Richardson had specimens from 
two very different locahties, from which his description was made. 

This compUcation caused me to hesitate for a long while respecting 
these species ; and even now, though describing the second species 
under a new name, I am still in doubt upon the following points : Are 
there really two species of Catostomi with red bands on the sides ? 
This would not be extraordinary, if we do not allow specific diagnoses 
to rest upon color. As soon, however, as the existence of two species 
is demonstrated by ultimate researches, it is evident that that of Lake 
Huron will be the same as our O. aurora^ whilst that of Slave Lake 
will be the C. Forsterianus, the same which Forster had in view. 

However, upon consulting the original Memoir of Forster, I am 
almost tempted to consider his second variety as the very species I 
describe hereafter, under the name of O. Forsterianus, and which, 
as we shall see, is nearly related to O. Sadsonius. It has that red 
tint of the lateral line, with the same general ground color. If 
that be the case, the name oi Forsterianus would be ill applied, for 
the name would remind us of one species, whilst the description would 
apply to another. 

Catostomus aureolus, Lesu. 

I cannot do more than mention this species, as I possess only a 
few specimens, and all very young, between three and four inches 
long. The general characters of the species are, however, already 
well indicated upon them. A thick and stout head, almost as high 
as long, truncated in front ; the considerable development of the 
operculum at the expense of the suboperculum ; the sides, the scales, 
their uniformity upon all the regions of the body, and their rhom- 
boidal form, such are the traits which characterize it. 

The species would thus extend farther northwards than has been 
known heretofore. It is, however, still important to verify the 
fact, either by comparing young 0. aureolus of Lake Erie with these, 
or by procuring large specimens from Lake Superior, to compare 
them with specimens of the other lakes. 



358 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Catostomus Forsterianus, Agass. 

I possess a complete series of individuals of this species, from the 
size of eleven inches up to seventeen. My description was made 
principally from the largest, to bring it nearest to that of O. Mud- 
sonius ; but I must, at the outset, remark that the characters no- 
ticed are the same in all. Not possessing a specimen of (7. Hudso- 
nius, I have referred to the description Dr. Richardson has given in 
establishing the points of comparison. 

The general form of the body is very regular ; the dorsal and 
ventral lines circumscribe an elongated oval, approaching to a cylinder 
towards the head, and to a parallelogram along the tail. The greatest 
circumference taken on the line of the greatest height, that is to say, 
before the dorsal, is nine inches and a half. The sides are compressed ; 
the body passes to the head, or, we might rather say, the head passes 
to the body, without any enlargement on the nape of the neck. 
The greatest height of the body does not become double the 
greatest thickness, this latter being taken at the very origin of the 
trunk ; thence it diminishes gradually and insensibly towards the 
caudal region, and the proportion begins to become progressively 
stronger in favor of the height from the posterior margin of the 
dorsal. 

The head itself is very smooth, and covered with a thick skin ; it 
is rather conical than quadrangular, on account of the declivity of 
the upper surface, which continues from the nape of the neck to the 
obtuse and rounded snout. It forms about the fifth part of the 
whole length, or rather less ; its height forms three-quarters of its 
length, in which the breadth between both eyes is contained twice. 
The eyes are subcircular, and situated near the upper surface of the 
head ; the anterior margin of their orbit is at equal distances from 
the end of the snout and the posterior extremity of the operculum ; 
in other terms, the diameter of the orbit is contained twice in the 
space which separates it from the margin of the operculum, and thrice 
in that which extends between it and the rostrum. The nostrils are 
large, and at a distance of one-fourth of an inch from the anterior 
margin of the orbits ; their structure varies little in different species. 



FISHES OP LAKE SUPERIOR. 369 

The mouth is placed immediately beneath the extremity of the ros- 
trum ; it is of medium size, very protractile ; its opening is subcircular, 
and easily receives the largest finger beyond the first phalanx. Its 
lips are carunculate ; the upper is thin, and of equal breadth on the 
whole circumference of the jaw ; it dilates itself from the angle of 
the mouth, to pass to the thickened and rounded lobes, with fringed 
circumference of the lower jaw ; these fringes are equally visible 
on the margin of the upper lip ; the two lobes are united on the 
symphysis of the jaw, by a narrow cutaneous slip ; the caruncles 
which cover their surface are scarcely more marked than those of 
the upper lip. On the head we remark several rows of pores similar 
to those of 0. Rudsonius and other species. These rows are per- 
fectly distinct in individuals preserved in alcohol. One of them is the 
continuation of the lateral hne of the body ; it passes along the upper 
margin of the operculum, descends beneath the orbit, and terminates 
on the end of the snout, describing some undulations on its pas- 
sage. The second row begins at the nostrils, and terminates on the 
occiput, a little before the union of the head with the body, on which 
point of union we observe a third single row, united transversely 
by its two extremities to the first double row. Finally, a fourth row 
is situated upon the face, and follows the outer margin of the pre- 
operculum. 

The opercular apparatus differs from that of O. Hudsonius, as 
described by Dr. Richardson, in two of its bones, the preoperculum 
and the interoperculum. This latter, in the species which is here 
referred to, has exactly the length of the suboperculum, though it is 
more robust and of more irregular form. It has a median carina on 
its anterior angle, whose extremity reaches that of the preoperculum 
in contact with the lower maxillary ; the posterior part, contiguous to 
the operculum and suboperculum, is triangular, and rises to one-third 
of the height of the anterior margin of the operculum. The pre- 
operculum is more slender, more elongated, and narrower than the 
interoperculum ; its form is that of a very opened crescent. 

The branchial fissures are very large, and somewhat approximated 
on the isthmus, where the membrane passes to the integuments of 
the abdomen, appearing somewhat like a transverse furrow. 

The intestinal canal measures twice the length of the body. The 



360 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

lower pharyngeals form a complete ring around the oesophagus. 
Each bone, taken by itself, resembles in its form a sickle ; that is to 
say, a crescent with a stalk. With this short, robust and flattened 
stalk the two bones unite, by means of a muscular bridge, which 
modify constantly the separation of which they are capable. The 
crescent presents two distinct sides ; one, the inner, is compact, 
rounded and smooth, and is only the continuation of the stalk ; 
the other, or outer, is widened, embracing only the circumference of 
the crescent ; it is composed of vertical laminse, of which the teeth 
are the continuation, with the exception of two lower ones, which 
are implanted on the very body of the bone. There are about thirty 
teeth ; the lower are much developed, strong, and compressed later- 
ally, surmounted by a crown which slopes over their inner side. 
From the middle of the crescent the teeth diminish abruptly towards 
i|;s summit, and are reduced to feeble laminae, which are lost in the 
body of the bone, which is also subject to a gradual diminution from 
the stalk to its upper angle. 

The air bladder is composed of two compartments ; the anterior is 
pear-shaped, and not quite half the length of the posterior, whose 
form is cylindrical. 

The color of this fish is bluish gray on the back, the head and the 
sides ; upon the sides an orange-colored red tint, with a very fine 
reflection, combines itself with the main color ; the belly and the 
lower side of the head are whitish. The pectoral and ventral fins 
are gray, on an orange-colored ground ; the caudal has the tint of 
the back, as also the dorsal ; the anal is sometimes whitish, like the 
belly, sometimes gray like the ventrals. 

This species is very common along the northern shores of Lake 
Superior. 

Catostomus Aurora, Agass. 
PI. II., fig. 3 and 4. 

Catostomus Forsterianus Bichards. Frankl. Journ. 1823, p. 720 ; 

Fn.Bor. Amer. III., 1836, liQ.— Cuv. et Val, Hist. Nat.Poiss. 

1844, 4:Q^.—Storer Synops. 1846, p. 167. 
Mithomapeth Fen, Arct. Zool. Introd. ccxcix. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 861 

We have stated above,- when speaking of the generic characters, 
the reasons which have induced us to change the name of this 
species, and to work out again its synonymy. Therefore, nothing 
more remains to be said on this point, and we proceed to give a full 
description of it, also comparing it with the above species, and regret- 
ting that we have been unable to compare it in nature with the (7. 
Sudsonius. As described by Dr. Richardson, his 0. Forsterianus^ 
which is our Aurora, is rather compared with that species than 
described in detail, and as these two species are very diflferent from 
each other, the comparison has not been made in its most minute 
peculiarities. 

The body is subcylindrical, compressed. Its general form, less 
thick and stout than in the preceding species, presents the same 
regularity of outlines, and the same harmony of the regions among 
themselves. The greatest height corresponds also to the anterior 
margin of the dorsal, and forms the fifth of the whole length, the 
caudal excluded ; this height forms five-sevenths of the greatest 
thickness of the body, which corresponds to the immediate back of 
the head. The diminution is gradual towards the tail. The head 
forms exactly the fifth of the whole length, a;nd it is of course con- 
tained four times in that of the body, the caudal included. It ia 
almost as compressed as in the preceding species, but less rounded 
on the upper surface, more elongated, more conical, and the rostrum 
more prominent. The skull is, however, declivous. The nostrils are 
very large. The position of the eyes, opposite the rostrum and the 
margin of the operculum, has the same relations as in the preceding 
species. The mouth is larger, and seems to be placed more back- 
wards, on account of the developement of the nose, but the upper lip, 
when we extend it, easily reaches to its extremity. The lips are 
more developed, and covered with more prominent caruncles. The 
two lobes especially are more extended, and are not at all attached 
to each other on the maxillary symphysis, as they are in the preced- 
ing species, being in this respect more independent of each other. 
(PI. 2, f. 4.) 

The surface of the head is covered with a smooth skin, through 
which the rows of pores open, upon the whole, similar to those which 
we have described in the preceding species. 



S62 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

The opercular apparatus is smaller and more convex than in the 
preceding species, and all the bones are so, proportionally, I having, 
however, been careful to take two individuals of the same size for the 
purpose of comparison. The operculum is as broad as high, though 
narrower at the upper margin than at the lower, which is oblique ; 
the posterior margin is almost straight. The suboperculum is more 
regular, on account of its lower margin being less convex. The 
interoperculum is less extended on its posterior extremity, which 
emits no processus along the anterior margin of the operculum. The 
outer surface is very convex, and almost smooth. The preoperculum 
is longer and more slender than the interoperculum, and proportion- 
ally broader than in the preceding species. 

The branchial fissures are large also ; the branchiostegal membrane 
is strong and thick ; it contains three rays. The dorsal fin is quad- 
rangular, its posterior margin equals in height two-thirds of its anterior 
margin, where we observe two or three small rudimentary rays, 
■without articulations. Its upper margin is almost straight or subcon- 
cave. The anal is long, and attains the base of the caudal in the 
male, whilst it is shorter in the female ; its anterior and posterior 
margins are parallel on the first two-thirds ; beyond which they 
approach each other to form a triangle, and to terminate the fin in 
a more or less obtuse point. The caudal is notched ; the scales 
advance more on the base of the lower lobe, which predominates 
slightly over the upper ; but this character is not constant ; I have 
even observed it only on the single individual which I have had 
figured ; there is one, sometimes two, rudimentary rays at the ante- 
rior margin. The ventrals are broad and esrpanded, hke an equi- 
lateral fan in the male ; while in the female the inner margin is 
shorter, which changes the aspect of the outer circumference, which 
is straight and more uniform in the male. Generally, we observe 
the rudiments of a ray at the anterior margin, which corresponds to 
the fifth ray of the dorsal, the rudiments excluded. The pectorals 
are long and of an irregularly elliptical form, or oblong, sometimes 
pointed at their terminal extremity. The anterior ray is strong and 
robust ; the fifth is the largest. 

Br. 3; D. 111,11; A. II, 8; C. 5, 1, 8, 8, 1, 5 ; V.I, 10; P. 
17-18. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 868 

The scales, very small at the anterior part of the trunk, increase 
in size towards the tail, without, however, attaining to the dimensiona 
of the species above mentioned, nor even to those of Q. Hudsonius. 
This increase of the scales from the head to the tail is real, and agreea 
with the imbrication. Their form is irregular and very variable, though 
we may say that they are generally oblong, of greater length than 
height, with convex margins, which are undulated, and never parallel 
and straight, like the upper and lower margins of the scales in the pre- 
ceding species. Now and then we may find a few circular ones, but 
they are exceptions. Those which cover the shoulders are still much 
larger than those situated between the pectoral fins on the lower sur- 
face of the abdomen. The lateral line is median, slightly inflected on 
the abdomen before the dorsal. It rises a little on the pedicle of the 
caudal. The abdominal walls are covered with a blackish pigment. 
The length of the intestinal canal is contained twice and a half in that 
of the body. The pharyngeal bones, though having the same struc- 
ture as in the preceding species, are, however, much more slender, 
and their teeth are much more feeble, thinner, and sharper on their 
extremity. 

The air bladder, equally divided into two compartments, presents 
this difierence, that, instead of being cylindrical, the posterior com- 
partment terminates in a pointed cone. The size and the relative 
proportions remain almost the same in the two species. 

The color is an olive yellow, very dark on the back and head, 
where it passes to the green on the sides. Following the course of 
the lateral line there is a band of a very brilliant carmine red, without 
precise outlines circumscribing it. In the females the red is less 
lively, and the belly remains white. The dorsal, caudal, and pec- 
toral fins are colored like the back ; the ventrals and the anal like 
the abdomen, but of a more intense yellow. The rays are of an 
olive-colored green. 

This species occurs frequently along the northern shores of Lake 
Superior. I secured, however, most of my specimens at the Pic. 

Genus Alburnus, Heck. 

This genus has been known only in the Old World, until I dis- 
covered the species described below, which was caught at the Sault 



364 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

of St. Mary. The species described before are about equally di- 
vided between Europe and Syria. The principal character of the 
genus is to have the mouth opening upwards, the lower jaw exceed- 
ing a little the upper (PI. 3. figs. 2 and 3.) The dorsal is narrow ; 
the anal slightly broader. The body is compressed. 

Alburnus rubellus, Agass. 
PI. III., figs. 1-3. 

This is as yet the only species of the genus found in North America. 
The body is compressed ; its form is elegant, slender, the back some- 
what more convex than the belly ; the tail is contracted. The great- 
est height of the body corresponds to the anterior third, or the region 
situated between the pectorals and the ventrals, and is contained 
six times in the length, exclusive of the caudal fin. The head, small, 
conical and compressed, like the sides, is somewhat less than the 
fifth of the whole length. The upper surface continues the declivous 
line of the back towards the end of the snout. The eyes are large 
and circular, approaching the upper region of the head, and at an 
equal distance from the end of the snout and the posterior extremity 
of the opercular apparatus. The suborbital ossicles are three in 
number ; two are contiguous to the posterior and lower margin of 
the orbit, the other at the anterior margin, covering the whole space 
between the nostrils and the lower maxillary. The nostrils, propor- 
tionally large also, are nearer to the eyes than to the extremity of 
the snout, and opening into two apparently equal orifices. Fig. 2, 
which represents the upper surface of the head, shows only the ante- 
rior orifice, the posterior being covered by the intermediate mem- 
brane which separates them from each other. The mouth is 
moderately opened ; its angles reach behind a vertical line which 
would pass before the eyes. The lower jaw slightly exceeds the 
upper (figs. 2 and 3.) 

The preoperculum is rounded at its posterior margin. The lower 
margin of the operculum is straight and oblique. The subopercu- 
lum is narrow, and terminates behind in a point ; its upper margin, 
contiguous to the operculum, is straight ; its lower margin forms a 
slight elliptical curve. Scarcely can we distinguish the lower mar- 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 365 

gin of the interoperculum, this bone being hidden behind the pre- 
operculum. The branchiostegal rays, three in number, are flattened 
and excessively thin, ahnost equal in form and in size, and slightly 
arched. 

The dorsal fin is higher than long, and situated about on the middle 
of the back. Its anterior margin is twice as high as its posterior. 
The upper margin is straight. There are ten rays, of which the 
anterior is short and undivided ; the bifurcation is repeated to the 
third degree on the central rays. The caudal is long and furcated ; 
the rays are twice bifurcated ; the largest only have slight indicar 
tions of a three-fold division. The anal, placed behind the dorsal, is 
broad, but less high than this latter; its margins are straight; it 
contains eleven rays, of which two are rudimentary and undivided at 
the anterior margin. Those of the centre show the traces of a 
triple bifurcation. The ventrals, narrow at their base, extend con- 
siderably at their circumference, which is rounded ; they are situated 
before the dorsal, and contain eight rays, the first being simple, the 
five following subdivided to the third degree. The pectorals, 
narrower and more elongated than the ventrals, are inserted behind 
the suboperculum at a small distance from this bone. There are 
eleven rays ; the first does not bifurcate at all, though it is articu- 
lated ; the six following are articulated on their last third only ; the 
five remaining are very short. 

Br. 3 ; D. I. 9. A. II., 10 ; C. 4. I. 9. 8. I. 4 ; V. 8 ; P. 11. 

The scales are of medium size, and about equal on all regions of 
the body. Their form is subcylindrical ; the concentric and radiating 
strjoe are visible only under the microscope. The lateral fine is 
shghtly inflected from the upper angle of the opercular apparatus 
upon the abdomen, to rise again opposite the dorsal, and thence con- 
tinues in a straight line towards the tail, following the middle of the 
sides. 

The back is of a yellowish green, with the outlines of the scales 
black. The upper surface of the head and the snout are of a darker 
tint. The face, the opercular apparatus and the sides have a bril- 
liant silvery reflection, with a more marked median band. There 
are some reddish spots on the face and the opercular apparatus, 
fading sometimes into a uniform reddish tint all over the head and 



366 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

shoulders. The iris is gold-colored ; the fins are of a uniform color, 
a transparent, pale yellow. 

Fig. 1 represents the fish of natural size. Figs. 2 and 3 are en- 
larged, to show the characters of the mouth and the jaws. 

This species is very common at the Sault of St. Mary ; specimens 
were also obtained from the Pic. 

GoBio PLUMBEUS, Agass. 

This species is widely distinct from G-oUo cataractce, the only 
species of that genus found in North America which has hitherto 
been described. The body is elongated, subcylindrical, compressed ; 
its greatest length is about seven inches. The head is contained 
somewhat more than four times in this length, and the height of the 
body forms exactly the fifth of it. The back is very slightly convex; 
the belly describes a very marked curve ; the tail beyond the anal fin 
straightens almost abruptly. The head itself is conical, irregularly 
quadrangular, the upper surface being very flattened, sometimes 
even concave on the middle line, and the lower surface plain. The 
eye is situated at the upper region of the face ; its diameter is one 
fourth of an inch. The nostrils are large also, and situated in circu- 
lar cavities at the upper part of the face. The anterior opening 
is oblong ; its canal is obUque from behind forwards ; its posterior 
margin, when extended, forms a cover to the second opening, which 
is the largest, perforated like the first, and placed a little more out- 
wards. The snout is flattened. The upper jaw exceeds the lower, 
and thus removes the mouth to the lower side of the head- At the 
angles of the mouth there is a very small barbel, still more slender 
than in the Gr. cataractce. It needs a very attentive examination to 
notice it. 

The posterior margin of the operculum is notched in the form of a 
small crescent at whose margin is a process of this bone. The lower 
margin is oblique and shghtly concave, bordered on its whole length 
by the suboperculum, a small, thin, narrow and elongated lamina. 
The interoperculum and the preoperculum are hidden beneath the 
fleshy skin of the cheeks. The branchiostegal membrane contains 
three rays ; it is continued upon the opercular valve. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 367 

The dorsal is situated exactly on the middle of the whole length, 
somewhat farther back than in Cr. cataractce ; it is higher than long. 
The caudal is notched ; its lobes are pointed. The anal is somewhat 
smaller than the dorsal, but it has the same form. The ventrals, 
situated somewhat in front of the dorsal, are rounded on their cir- 
cumference. The pectorals are narrower than these latter ; they 
are also more elongated and more rounded on their circumference ; 
their form is oblong. 

Br. 3; D. I., 9; A. L, 9; C. 5, I., 9, 8, I., 4; V. II., 8; 
P. 16. 

The scales are large ; we can scarcely count sixty rows from the 
gills to the caudal ; somewhat oblong on the sides, they are subcir- 
cular on the back and belly. We readily perceive with the magni- 
fying glass the concentrical and radiating strise. The lateral line is 
deflected on the abdomen into an open curve, and recovers its direct 
line beyond the dorsal, towards the tail. It is almost central in its 
whole course. 

The head, the back, and the upper half of the sides are ash-gray. 
A narrow lead-colored band extends along the upper side of the lat- 
eral line. The abdomen is yellowish white, interspersed with small 
gray points on the scales. The lower side of the head and belly is 
of a uniform color. The dorsal, caudal, and pectorals are gray, the 
ventrals and the anal yellow. The largest specimens of this species 
are from Lake Superior. We have also a few from Lake Huron. 

I am well aware that the position of this species in the genus Gobio 
is not natural, as it has neither the particular cut of the outline of 
the head which characterizes the European species of Gobio, nor 
their narrow dorsal, nor their projecting barbel, nor their pharyngeal 
teeth, but I am unwilling to establish a new genus for it before I 
have organized the American Cyprinidas more extensively. I will 
only add that were it not for the barbel this species might be very 
properly placed in the genus Leuciscus. But the European Leucisci 
have not rudiments of such appendages on the sides even of the 
mouth ; while all the species of Cyprindo of North America, which 
have been referred to the genus Leuciscus, have, as far as I know, 
such short barbels. I am therefore inclined to believe that these 
species wiU have to be removed from that genus, Leuciscus, and 



368 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

constitute by themselves a distinct genus, to wluch my (xohio plum- 
beus will also belong, as it is not to be separated generically from 
Leuciscus pulchellus and other American species. 

Leuciscds frontalis, Agass. 

PI. III., fig. 4. 

At first sight this species reminds us of L. cornutus of New Eng- 
land, to which it bears a close resemblance. Its general form is 
short and stout. Its sides are much compressed. The back is very 
convex. The height of the body is proportionally great, and is con- 
tained only four times in the whole length, from the anterior extremity 
of the head to the termination of the caudal. It has thus a corpu- 
lent form, and is even higher than L. cornutus. The tail also 
loses its dimensions less abruptly. The head itself participates of 
the abbreviated form of the body, being somewhat less than a quarter 
of its length. Its upper surface is rounded, very declivous, and de- 
scends abruptly on the snout, which renders it very obtuse, rounded, 
and, as it were, prominent. The eyes are large and circular, pro- 
portionally larger than in L. cornutus, and approach less to the top 
of the head. They are situated but little nearer to the end of the 
snout than to the posterior margin of the opercular apparatus. The 
lower margin of their orbit corresponds to a horizontal line traced 
along the middle of the face. The nostrils open by a double opening 
in a circular depression situated before the eyes, and nearer to these 
latter than to the terminal margin of the head. The anterior 
opening, which is the smallest and of subcircular form, is bordered 
behind by a small membrane which applies itself like a cover on the 
posterior opening, rendering its form crescentic. The mouth is of 
medium size, but shorter cleft ; its angles attain a vertical line which 
would descend from the nostrils ; it is terminal and oblique ; the 
lower jaw is somewhat shorter than the upper. 

The opercular apparatus has nothmg remarkable. The bones 
which compose it are all hidden beneath a thick skin through which 
we scarcely distinguish theu' outlines. All are rounded on their 
outer margin, and give to the extended outline of the whole opercu- 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 369 

lum the form of a crescent on whose convexity the branchiostegal 
membrane is continued to the upper margin of the opercukim. 

The branchial fissures are large. There are three strongly devel- 
oped branchiostegal rays, flattened and arched. The two outer on 
each side may approach very near to each other on the middle line 
of the lower surface of the head, where they are parallel for a short 
distance. The branchiostegal membrane is endowed with great 
elasticity. 

The rays of the centre of all the fins are bifurcated to the third 
degree. In front of the dorsal, of the anal and of the ventrals we 
remark the rudiment of a spinous ray, often very difficult to recog- 
nize. The following ray is never bifurcated, though distinctly articu- 
lated as the remaining ones ; this is also the case with the ray of 
the anterior margin of the pectorals, and mth. the great outer ray 
of the lobes of the caudal, which for this reason is stouter. 

The anterior margin of the dorsal fin corresponds exactly to the 
middle of the length of the body, excluding the caudal ; so that it 
extends behind the most prominent part of the back, along the curve 
of the posterior half of the body ; its length nearly equals the height 
of its anterior margin ; its upper margin is very slightly rounded. 
The anal is both lower and shorter than the dorsal, but its length 
equals its height. Its outer margin is almost straight. The caudal 
is admirably regular ; its posterior margin is notched by a subcircu- 
lar crescent ; the ventrals are oblong, rounded, when extended ; their 
outer circumference equals three widths of their base ; their poste- 
rior extremity passes someAvhat beyond the anus. The pectorals 
have precisely the general form of the ventrals, but they are larger ; 
their terminal extremity is almost contiguous to the base of insertion 
of the ventrals. 

Br. 3 ; D. I., 9 ; A. 10 ; C. 3, L, 9, 8, 1., 3 ; V. I., 8 ; P. 14. 

The scales cover more than half of each other by imbrication ; they 
are oblong in the vertical direction, and seen in their natural posi- 
tion, they represent lozenges which vary a little according to the 
regions ; the largest occupy the middle region of the body as far as 
the pedicle of the tail ; but on this latter region they are broader 
in proportion to their height. On the back they have almost the 
size and the form of those of the tail. On the belly they are much 

25 



370 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

smaller and subcircular. The lateral line curves slightly on the 
abdomen as far as the height of the anterior margin of the dorsal, 
whence it continues almost directly towards the tail, approaching 
nearer, however, to the lower line of the body. 

Small circular shields with depressed surface, surmounted with 
very small conical and acute points, cover the surface of the head, 
the snout and the back, as far as the dorsal fin. A row of five or 
six of the largest border the lower jaw ; those of middle size cover 
the extremity of the snout and the space situated before the eyes. 
On the back they are excessively small. 

The head and the back are of a bluish black, the sides and the 
abdomen of a gold-colored yellow, everywhere with a metallic reflec- 
tion. The fins are of uniform color and participate of the tint of 
the regions to which thev belono-. 

From Montreal River on the eastern shore of Lake Superior. 

Leuciscus gracilis, Agass. 

There is still another Leuciscus which, at first sight, one might 
be disposed to confound with L. cornutus or with the frontalis 
above described. And it must be confessed that it has much anal- 
ogy with those two species, between which it must be placed in a 
natural series. 

Li a family so numerous in species as that of the Cyprinidoe, it is 
only by minute study that we can succeed in making out the history 
of each of them. Here, as in Europe, the species, though belonging 
often to diiferent genera, gradually pass from one genus to another, 
in their general appearance ; the type of the family, that of the 
genu* itself, seems to predominate in all ; and by reason of the 
multiplicity, and also the diversity of forms under which these 
characters manifest themselves, the species appear to be mere varie- 
ties. These difficulties occur also in all genera which have numer- 
ous species in other families of this and other classes, but, far from 
impressing naturalists merely with the monotony to be overcome, 
they should render them attentive to the most minute details which 
characterize, in a permanent manner, natural groups in the animal 
kingdom. In the case of this species and the two others mentioned 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 371 

in connection with it, I am satisfied that they should constitute a dis- 
tinct genus, characterized chiefly by their scales, which are so much 
higher than long, besides the particular form of their head and body 
and their pharyngeal teeth. There are some more species of this 
genus yet undescribed, which have been discovered in Pennsylvania 
by Prof. Baird ; but I do not know one from Europe. 

Though the length of this species is the same as that of L. fron- 
talis^ its general form shows a marked difference. It is fusiform, 
rather slender but very compressed, the curve of the back being 
very elhptical, and the abdomen making a stronger projection. 
The height is somewhat less than a quarter of the whole length. 
The head is small and conical ; its upper surface rather flattened 
than convex, with a less marked declivity. The anterior part, less 
developed than in the L. frontalis, renders the head more pointed, 
though the snout be obtuse. The eyes are somewhat larger, and 
nearer the upper margin of the skull. The face is less developed, 
both jaws are of equal length. The opercular and branchiostegal 
apparatus are less robust. The head forms about the fifth of the 
entire length, and this slight difference in the proportions, when 
compared with L. frontalis, accounts for the differences of the 
general form, which we have noticed above. Again, as the conse- 
quence of a more slender body, smaller fins are required to sustain 
it, and there being space for separation between them they become 
more distant from each other. Thus is the distance enlarged 
between the extremity of the pectorals and the base of the ventrals, 
and between the extremity of the ventrals and the anus. All the 
fins, taken together, are smaller than in L. frontalis. Thus the 
pectorals and the ventrals are less widened, while the length is the 
same. The dorsal is higher than it is long ; the anal lower than the 
dorsal, but also higher than long. The caudal is narrower, a natural 
consequence of a smaller tail. 

Br. 3 ; D. I, 9 ; A. I, 10 ; C. 4, 1, 9, 8, 1, 4 ; V. 8 ; P. 15. 

The rays of the dorsal, caudal, and pectoral fins, present bifurca- 
tions of the second degree only ; slight indications of three-fold 
bifurcation are observed on the central rays of the ventrals and anal, 
but with less regularity than in the preceding species. 

The scales are larger than those of L. frontalis, and are less 



372 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

extensively imbricated, showing, however, the same proportions on 
the different regions, which we have given for the preceding species. 
The lateral line is apparently the same ; only the curve inflected on 
the abdomen seems wider. 

The back and the head are greenish-brown ; the lower face of the 
head and the abdomen are of a very pale golden yellow, with a very 
brilliant silvery reflection of the scales. The operculum is gold 
colored. The rays of the dorsal, caudal, and pectoral fins, have a 
gray tint on a yellowish ground. The ventrals and the anal are of 
a golden yellow, like the abdomen. 

The head is smooth ; we notice only on the space between the eye 
and the occiput some rudiments of tubercles hidden beneath the 
skin, perceptible only to the touch. 

This species is distinguished from L. cornutus, not only by the 
color of its fins and the absence of armature on the head, but also 
by differences in the general form and structure of the fins, anal- 
ogous to those which we have pointed out in L. frontalis. 

From Lake Huron. 

Leuciscus Hudsonius, Dekay. 

Leuciscus Hudsonius Dekay. N. Y. Fn. 1842, p. 206, PI. 34, 

fig. 109. 
Clupea Hudsonia DeWitt Clinton, An. Lye. N. H. N. Y., I., 1824, 

49, PI. 2, fig. 2. 

The resemblance of this species to the Clupea is only superficial, 
and does not require a long examination to be refuted. With the 
exception of the general outline, it has not one of the essential char- 
acters of organization of that family. The external conformation of 
the mouth could not leave us for a moment in hesitation as to which 
natural group it belongs. It is of the family of Cyprinidse, where 
it has been placed by the author of the Zoology of New- York. 
Already DeWitt Clinton, though arranging it in the genus Clupea, 
entertained some doubts in this respect, on account of the absence of 
a ventral serrature. 

The species is tolerably well described by the authors whom we 
have just cited, so that we have only to refer our readers to them. 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 373 

We must, however, remark that the figures which they give of it a^e 
rather incomplete. The oldest is still the best for the general out- 
lines, and the species is there more easily recognized than by that of 
the Fauna of New York, where the fins are too stiff and too recti- 
linear, and the scales drawn in an inverse direction from what they 
are in nature, the posterior margin being turned towards the head. 

The formula for the fin rays is as follows : 

Br. 3; D. II. 9; A. II., 9 ; C. 4, 1. 9, 8, 1., 4; V. 8; P. 15. 

A very slight difference in the dorsal and anal may be noticed, 
but we consider it of little importance here. Their rays bifurcate 
to the third degree, with a few unsymmetrical indications of a 
three-fold bifurcation on one of the rays of the anal, and on some of 
the central ones of the lobes of the caudal. The rays of the pecto- 
rals subdivide only once. As for the branchiostegal I'ays, we find 
only three of them, though DeWitt Clinton has counted four ; per- 
haps he counted the suboperculum. Dr. Dekay does not mention 
them. There is also something to be corrected respecting the lat- 
eral line ; the former says it is obsolete ; the latter describes it 
as straight. On the individuals which we have had under notice, 
it is almost median ; arising from the upper angle of the opercu- 
lum, it is deflected upon the abdomen to rise again gradually beyond 
the dorsal fin, and finally to extend straight towards the extremity 
of the tail. 

From Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Very common about 
Fort William and the Pic. 

This is another form of the group of Leucisci, of which there is 
no representative in Europe. It is likely to become the type of a 
distinct genus ; for it has many striking peculiarities. I have, how- 
ever, refrained from establishing it until I shall have ascertained 
whether the specimens found in different locahties are specifically 
identical or not. 



Such a critical revision of the fishes of Lake Superior, and the 
other great Canadian lakes, was the first necessary step in the inves- 
tigation I am tracing, in order to ascertain the natural primitive 
relations between them and the region which they inhabit. Before 



874 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

drawing the conclusions wMcli follow directly from these facts, I 
should introduce a similar list of the fishes living in similar latitudes, 
or under similar circumstances, in other parts of the world ; and more 
particularly of the species of Northern Europe. But such a list, to 
be of any use, should be throughout based upon a critical compara- 
tive investigation of all the species of that continent, which would 
lead to too great a digression. The comparison of the freshwater 
fishes of Europe, which correspond to those of North America, has 
been carried so far, that I feel justified in assuming, what is really 
the fact, that all the species of North America, without a single ex- 
ception, differ from those of Europe, if we limit ourselves strictly to 
fishes which are exclusively inhabitants of freshwater. 

I am well aware that the salmon which runs up the rivers of 
Northern /ind Central Europe, also occurs on the eastern shores of the 
northern part of North America, and runs up the rivers emptying into 
the Atlantic. But this fish is one of the marine arctic fishes, which 
migrates with many others annually further south, and which migra- 
tory species is common to both continents. Those species, however, 
which never leave the freshwaters, are, without exception, different 
on the two continents. Again, on each of the continents, thej^ differ 
in various latitudes ; some, however, taking a wider range than 
others in their natural geographical distribution. 

The freshwater fishes of North America, which form a part of its 
temperate fauna, extend over very considerable ground, for there is 
no reason to subdivide into distinct faunce the extensive tracts of land 
between the arctics and the Middle States of the Union. We notice 
over these, considerable uniformity in the character of the freshwater 
fishes. Nevertheless, a minute investigation of all their species has 
shown that Lake Superior proper, and the freshwaters north of it, 
constitute in many respects a special zoological district, sufficiently 
different fi'om that of the lower lakes and the northern United States, 
to form a natural division in the great fauna of the freshwater fishes 
of the temperate zone of this continent. 

We have shown that there are types, occurring in all the lower 
lakes, which never appear in Lake Superior and northwards, and 
that most of the species found in Lake Superior are peculiar to it ; 
the Salmonidse only taking a wider range, and some of them covering 



riSHES OP LAKE SUPERIOR. 375 

almost the whole extent of that fauna, while others appear circum- 
scribed witliin very narrow limits. 

Now, such differences in the range which the isolated species take 
in the faunoe is a universal character of the distribution of animals ; 
some species of certain families covering, without distinction, exten- 
sive grounds, which are occupied by several species of other families, 
limited to particular districts of the same zone. 

But, after making due allowance for such variations, and taking a 
general view of the subject, we arrive, nevertheless, at this conclu- 
sion ; that all the freshwater fishes of the district under examination 
are peculiar to that district, and occur nowhere else in any other 
part of the world. 

They have their analogues in other continents, but nowhere beyond 
the limits of the American continent do we find any fishes identical 
■with those of the district, the fauna of which we have been re- 
cently surveying. The Lamprey eels of the lake district have very 
close representatives in Europe, but they cannot be identified. The 
sturgeons of this continent are neither identical with those of Europe 
nor with those of Asia. The cat-fishes are equally different. We 
find a similar analogy and similar differences between the perches, 
pickerels, eelpouts, salmons, and carps. In all the families which 
occur throughout the temperate zone, there are near relatives on the 
two continents, but they do not belong to the same stock. And in 
addition to these, there are also types which are either entirely peculiar 
to the American continent, such as Lepidosteus and Percopsis, or 
belong to genera which have not simultaneously representatives in 
the two worlds, and are therefore more or less remote from those 
which have such close analogues. The family of Percoids, for in- 
stance, has several genera in Europe, which have no representatives 
in America ; and several genera in America which have no repre- 
sentatives in Europe, besides genera which are represented on both 
continents, though by representatives specifically distinct. 

Such facts have an important bearing upon the history of creation, 
and it would be very unphilosophical to adhere to any view respect- 
ing its plan, which would not embrace these facts, and grant them 
their fall meaning. If we face the fundamental question which is at 
the bottom of this particular distribution of animals, and ask ourselves, 



376 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

where have all these fishes been created, there can be but one answer 
given which will not be in conflict and direct contradiction with the 
facts themselves, and the laws that regulate animal life. The fishes 
and all other freshwater animals of the region of the great lakes, 
must have been created where thej live. They are circumscribed 
within boundaries, over which they cannot pass, and to which there 
is no natural access from other quarters. There is no trace of their 
having extended further in their geographical distribution at any 
former period, nor of their having been limited within narrower 
boundaries. 

It cannot be rational to suppose that they were created in some 
other part of the world, and were transferred to this continent, to 
die away in the region where they are supposed to have originated, 
and to multiply in the region where they are found. There is no 
reason why we should not take the present evidence in their distri- 
bution as the natural fact respecting their origin, and that they are, 
and were from the beginning, best suited for the country where they 
are now found. 

Moreover, they bear' to the species which inhabit similar regions, 
and live under similar circumstances in Europe and Asia, and the 
Pacific side of this continent, such relations, that they appear to the 
philosophical observer as belonging to a plan which has been carried 
out in its details with reference to the general arrangement. The 
species of Europe, Asia, and the Pacific side of this continent, cor- 
respond in their general combination to the species of the eastern and 
northern parts of the American continent, all over which the same 
general types are extended. They correspond to each other on the 
whole, but difler as to species. 

And again, this temperate fauna has such reference to the fauna 
of the Arctic, and to that of the warmer zones, that any transposition 
of isolated members of the whole plan, would disturb the harmony 
which is evidently maintained throughout the natural distribution of 
organized beings all over the world. This internal evidence of an 
intentional arrangement, having direct reference to the present geo- 
graphical distribution of the animals, dispersed over the whole surface 
of our globe, shows most conclusively, that they have been created 
where they are now found. Denying this position were equivalent 



FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 377 

to denying that the creation has been made according to a wise plan. 
It were denying to the Creator the intention of establishing well 
regulated natural relations between the beings he has called into 
existence. It were denying him the wisdom which is exemplified in 
nature, to ascribe it to the creatures themselves, to ascribe it even 
to those creatures in which we hardly see evidence of consciousness, 
or worse than all, to ascribe this wonderful order to physical influences 
or mere chance. 

As soon as this general conclusion is granted, there are, however, 
some further adaptations which follow as a matter of course. Each 
type, being created within the limits of the natural area which 
it is to inhabit, must have been placed there under circumstances 
favorable to its preservation and reproduction, and adapted to the 
fulfilment of the purposes for which it was created. There are, in 
animals, pecuhar adaptations which are characteristic of their species, 
and which cannot be supposed to have arisen from subordinate influ- 
ences. Those which live in shoals cannot be supposed to have been 
created in single pairs. Those which are made to be the food of 
others cannot have been created in the same proportions as those 
which feed upon them. Those which are everywhere found in innu- 
merable specimens, must have been introduced in numbers capable of 
maintaining their normal proportions to those which live isolated, and 
are comparatively and constantly fewer. For we know that this har- 
mony in the numerical proportions between animals is one of the great 
laws of nature. The circumstance that species occur within definite 
limits where no obstacles prevent their wider distribution, leads to the 
further inference that these limits w"ere assigned to them from the 
beginning, and so we should come to the final conclusion, that the 
order which prevails throughout the creation is intentional, that it is 
regulated by the limits marked out on the first day of creation, and 
that it has been maintained unchanged through ages, with no other 
modifications than those which the higher intellectual powers of man 
enable him to impose upon some few of the animals more closely 
connected with him, and in reference to those very limited changes 
which he is able to produce artificially upon the surface of our globe. 



VII. 

DESCRIPTION OF SOME NEW SPECIES OF REPTILES FROM 
THE REGION OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Htlodes maculatus, Agass. 
PI. VI., figs. 1, 2, 3. 



This species is so characteristic as to leave no difficulty in distin- 
guishing it from those already known belonging to the same genus. 
Its form is narrow, elongate ; and its head smaller, in proportion to 
the body, than in any other species. The length of the head is con- 
tained twice in the length of the body, thus forming one-third of the 
whole length. The body is oblong, rounded, somewhat broader than 
high, tapering towards its posterior extremity. The head is ellipti- 
cal, tapering towards the snout, somewhat distinct from the trunk by 
a shght contraction of the neck ; its greatest width is behind the 
eyes ; its upper surface is depressed so that the head appears rather 
flat. The eyes, of a medium size, are turned upwards near the mar- 
gin of, the head, but are hardly prominent. The nostrils are lateral, 
and very near the extremity of the snout. The tympanic circle 
is small, and near the angle of the mouth. The mouth is widely 
split ; the lower jaw is overlapped by the upper, and the snout 
slightly prominent. The palatal teeth are arranged in pairs, upon 
two small, very narrow bones ; they are extremely minute. Those 
of the upper jaw, still less developed, occur only on the middle third 
of its arch. The tongue is broad, and fills the whole floor of the 
mouth ; it is free upon two-thirds of its posterior extremity, the 
margin of which is obtusely bilobed ; the anterior margin and the 
sides are hardly free. 



EEPTILES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 379 

The limbs are very slender ; the fingers very slim, and free for 
their whole length. The carpus and tarsus are hardly broader than 
the forearm and leg. The posterior extremities exceed the length 
of the body by the length of the longest fingpr. All the fingers are 
turned in one direction, bent outwards. The anterior limbs, half as 
long as the posterior, have the two outer toes turned outwards, while 
the two others are arched inwards. 

The upper surface of the head is smooth, as are also the back and 
the legs ; but the sides are covered with minute cutaneous tubercles, 
which extend over the whole lower surface of the body, where they 
increase in size ; they extend, also, over the thigh and forearm ; the 
lower jaw and extremities of the limbs, alone, being perfectly smooth 
underneath. 

The color is of a bluish gray, irregularly speckled with small black 
dots, which are partly oblong, partly circular, and very well circum- 
scribed in their outlines, so that they show distinctly, notwithstanding 
the sUght difference in color. The lower surface is of a yellow- 
ish white, dark upon the sides, lighter and purer under the head and 
along the margin of the lower jaw. A very narrow white band 
extends along the margin of the upper jaw, as far back as the inser- 
tion of the arm, upon which it encroaches somewhat. 

Figs. 1, 2, represent the species of the natural size ; the first, in 
the natural attitude of the animal ; the second, as seen from below. 
Fig. 3 represents a tadpole, remarkable for the great length the tail 
still preserves, the legs being already very far advanced in their 
development. Whether they undergo their metamorphoses in one 
season, or spend the first winter in an intermediate state between 
their larval and adult form, has not been ascertained. 

Rana nigricans, Agass. 

PL VI., figs. 4, 5. 

This species is intermediate, with reference to its size and the 
development of its limbs, between R. damitans and R. haleeina. 
It differs from both by its color, and by the form of its legs ; the hind 
foot being more extensively palmate, and their membrane extending 



380 LAKE SUPEKIOR. 

to the base of the last fingers. The fingers, however, are compara- 
tively more slender, and those of the anterior foot more unequal 
when compared to each other. 

The head is rather prominent, the snout, however, being rounded. 
The nostrils, which are very small, open at its extremity. The eyes 
are circular, and of medium size, slightly prominent. The upper 
eyelid rises to the greatest height of the head. The tympanic circle 
is very large, and very near the orbit. The mouth, widely split, is 
provided with acute teeth upon the whole margin of the upper jaw. 
There is also a small group of teeth, in pairs, upon the palatal bones. 
The tongue is broad, oblong, pear-shaped, lining the whole floor of 
the mouth from the symphysis of the lower jaw ; it terminates back- 
wards in two obtuse lobes. 

The body is proportionally long, ovate, the head forming one-third 
of the whole length. A cutaneous keel, of the same color as the 
main hue of the back, extends on both sides from the posterior angle 
of the orbit to the anus. The posterior limbs are longer than the 
whole body by the whole length of the feet. The thighs are com- 
paratively thick and short. The anterior limbs bear the same pro- 
portion to the size of the whole body that are usually observed in 
the various species of frogs. Figs. 4 and 5 give, not only an accurate 
idea of the general appearance of the animal, but the proportional 
thickness and length of the toes are drawn with the greatest 
minuteness. 

The largest specimens I have collected are about one-fourth larger 
than the figures. The color is of a blackish brown upon the whole 
upper surface of the body, head and limbs. Irregular, deep black 
spots, of an angular form, are dispersed over this whole surface ; they 
are very small upon the head, but larger upon the back, and largest 
upon the hind legs. In large specimens, the general color is more 
uniform, somewhat darker, and the spots less distinct. The whole 
lower surface is either uniformly whitish, or witli a slight yellowish 
tint towards the hind extremity, and frequently with small blackish 
or brownish spots along the sides. The outline of the lower margin 
is bordered with white. Specimens of this species were caught in 
various localities along the northern shores of Lake Superior. 



reptiles of lake superior. 381 

Crotophorus. 
PI. VI., figs. 6 to 8. 

I abstain from giving a specific name to this species, from fear of 
adding a useless synonym to its nomenclature. It is, indeed, very 
closely allied to, and probably identical with Q. tergeminus. Its 
head, however, is rather elliptical than triangular, and the spots 
which cover it difier, as may be seen on comparing our figure with 
tliat of Dr. Holbrook.* The snout is truncate. Having no authentic 
specimen of C. tergeminus to compare with mine, I shall only point 
out the diflferences I have noticed between my specimen and the de- 
scription and figure of Dr. Holbrook, leaving it to future comparisons 
to settle the question of the specific identity or difference. 

The general color is the same as that of Q. tergeminus, but the 
two brown bands which exist along the neck on each side, and con- 
verge upon the back, are shorter. The bands of the same color, which 
arise from the eyes, extend beyond the angle of the mouth, and 
nearly meet the other bands, where they unite with the first spot on 
the back. The width of these bands covers three rows of scales. 
The white band below this is much narrower, and covers but one 
single row of scales, and is bent at the angle of the mouth. Along 
the back there are thirty oblong transverse spots, deeply emarginate 
on the anterior side, and slightly concave on the posterior side back- 
wards. They appear like a pair of spots united. Upon the tail 
there are five quadrangular, oblong, transverse spots, in advance of 
the caudal plates. Upon the sides there is a double row of smaller 
spots, of an oblong or subcircular form, varying in size, and alternat- 
ing with each other, while in C. tergeminus there is only one small 
lateral row. The lower surface of the body is mottled with black and 
white, with very minute gray dots. There are one hundred and 
thirty abdominal plates, apparently broader than those of O. tergemi- 
nus ; and, in addition, in advance of the anus, they are of a semicir- 
cular form. The caudal plates are twenty-eight in number, twenty- 
five of which are entire, and three, in advance of the rattle, bilobed. 

* North American Herpetology, vol. III., PI. 5. 



382 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

The lobes of the rattle have the same dimensions as those of C. 
tergeminus. The whole length of the body is two feet two inches ; 
the head measures one inch and a quarter ; the tail, three inches 
and five-eighths of an inch. There are other slight differences in 
the proportional length of the body and of the tail, corresponding 
to the differences noticed in the greater number of caudal plates 
and the greater width of the abdominal plates. 

The specimen was caught on the southern extremity of Lake Huron. 
Besides those species, the following reptiles occur about Lake 
Superior : 

Tropidonotus sirtalis, 

" erythrogaster, 

" a species allied to rigidus, from Lake Huron, 

Bufo Americanus, 
Rana halecina, 
" sylvatica. 

These three species occur as far north as Neepigon Bay, and a 
circumstance, which has struck me very forcibly, is the remarkable 
size of the specimens observed in these high latitudes. 

Plethodon erythronotus Bd. 

Menobranclius maculatus. This species does not properly occur in Lake 
Superior, but is found in Muddy Lake, below Sault St. Marie. 

No turtles are found any where on the northern shores of Lake 
Superior, as far as I know. 



VIII. 

REPORT OF THE BIRDS COLLECTED AND OBSERVED AT 
LAKE SUPERIOR, 

BY J. E. CABOT. 



The striking scarcity of birds and quadrupeds about the lake has 
already been noticed in the Narrative. In the case of the granivo- 
rous and frugivorous species, this might be accounted for from the 
scarcity of their proper food. To the insectivorous birds, however, 
this reasoning certainly could not apply. One would have expected 
to find the warblers, especially, breeding in abundance in this 
region. But the only birds that could be called tolerably abundant 
(except in special lo'calitics) were Zonotrichia pennsylvanica, and in 
a less degree, Parus atricapillus and Ampelis cedrorum. Some- 
thing, no doubt, must be attributed to the season, many birds having 
passed further northward, and others being engaged in incubation. 
Then all birds are more silent at this season, and less inclined to loco- 
motion. On the other hand, we found a great abundance and 
variety of birds at the Sault, much greater than would be found in 
Massachusetts at that season. And whenever we came to a trading 
post, we found a great difference in this respect, although the In- 
dians, whether from scarcity of food or from wantonness, destroy 
great numbers even of the smaller species. It would seem, that 
apart from a more abundant supply of nourishment, the neighbor- 
hood of man is in some way attractive to birds, — partly perhaps 
from the greater freedom of such situations from beasts and birds of 
prey. As to the water-birds, the nature of the country would at 
once indicate that none but piscivorous species were to be expected. 
In the annual migrations, it is said large numbers of ducks, and 
particularly of geese, aUght, for a day or two, in the streams and 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



pools of the shore. But the deep, cold waters of the lake, permitting 
no growth of water-plants, except occasionally in a sheltered cove, 
possess no attractions further. Accordingly, the only water-birds we 
saw were Larus argentatus, Colymbus glacialis and Mergus cucul- 
latus, all which we usually saw in small numbers every day, and 
one specimen of Colymbus septentrionalis. In the neighborhood of 
Detroit we saw black terns in abundance, and heard that some 
of the light-colored species bred about St. Joseph's Island, but we 
saw none of them beyond the St. Clair. 

Seeing the importance that is beginning to be given to even 
minute details of geographical distribution, I have subdivided the fol- 
lowing list of species observed, so as to present first the species of most 
extensive range, and afterwards those of more confined localities. 



From the Sault to Fort William. 
Corvus cedroruin. 
Ampelis cacalotl. 
Parus atricapillus. 
Regulus satrapa. 
Vireo olivaceus. 
Mnlotilta coronata. 
Hii'undo bicolor. 

" rufa. 
Zonotrichia pennsylvanica. 
Ectopistes migratorius. 
Tringoides macularia. 
Larus argentatus. 
Colymbus glacialis. 
Mergus cucullatus. 

Frotn the Sault to the Pic, and at Fort 

William. 
Bonasa umbeUus. 
Zonotrichia melodia. 

From the Sault to St. Ignace. 
Turdus migratorius. 
Mniotilta virens. 
Fringilla hiemalis. 
Carpodacus purpureus. 
Tinnunculus sparverius. 
Halietus leucocephalus. 



From the Sault to the Pic. 
Sialia Wilsoni. 
Mniotilta sestiva. 
Setophaga ruticilla. 
Sitta canadensis. 
Fringilla pinus. 
Zonotricliia socialis. 
Pandion Carolinensis. 

From the Sault to Michipicotin. 
Corvus Americanus. 
Cyanocorax cristatus. 
Mniotilta maculosa. 

From Michipicotin to Fort William. 
Tetrao canadensis. 
Myiobius Cooperi. 

From the Pic to Fort William. 
Perisoreus canadensis. 
Parus Hudsonicus. 
Loxia americana. 
" leucoptera. 
Picus villosus. 

" pubescens. 
Picoides arcticus. 
" hirsutus. 
Totanus melanoleucus. 



BIRDS OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 



385 



At the Sault. 
Agelaius phceniceus. 
Vireo noveboracensis. 
Mniotilta maritima. 

" Pennsylvanica. 
Trichas Philadelphia. 
Setophaga Wilsonii. 
Guiraca ludoviciana. 
Zonotrichia Savanna. 
Syrnium nebulosum. 
Colymbus septentrionalis. 

NeigJiborliood of Mamoinse. 
Chordeiles Virginianus. 
Mniotilta striata. 

At the Pic. 
Colaptes auratus. 
Turdus brunneus. 



At the Pic. 
Mniotilta peregrina (and young). 
Myiobius nunciola. 

" virens. 
Zonotrichia pusilla. 
" Lincolnii. 

Neighborhood of St. Ignace. 
Falco peregrinus (unfledged). 
Surnia ulula. 

At Fort William. 
Cotyle riparia. 
Ceryle alcyon. 
Tringa Schinzii. 
Totanus flavipes. 

At the Sault and Fort William. 
Setophaga canadensis. 



26 



IX. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME SPECIES OF LEPIDOPTERA, FROM 
THE NORTHERN SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 

BY DR. THADDEUS WILLIAM HARRIS. 



PONTIA OLERACEA H. 
PI. VII., fig. 1. 



Pontia oleracea Harris, New England Farmer, vol. VIII., p. 402 
(1829). — Discourse before the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 
ciety, p. 7, 21 (1832), — Catalogue of Insects of Massachusetts, 
in Hitchcock's Report, 1st ed. p. 589 (1833).— The same, 2d 
ed. p. 590 (1835). — Report on Insects of Massachusetts inju- 
rious to Vegetation, p. 213 (1841). — Kirby, Fauna Boreali- 
Americana, Part IV., p. 288 (1837). 

Pieris oleracea Boisduval, Species Gen. des Lepidopteres, tome I., 
p. 618 (1836). 

Alls subrotundatis integerrimis albis ; anticis basi costaque nigri- 
cantibus, subtus apicem et posticis, infra, luteis fusco-venosis. 

Alar. exp. 2 unc. 

Body black above. Antennae black, annulated with white, and 
rufous at the tip. Wings yellowish white ; the anterior pair dusky 
on the front edge and base ; tip, beneath, pale yellow, with dusky 
veins. Under side of the hindwings pale yellow, with broad, 
dusky veins, and a saffron-yellow spot on the humeral angle. 

The tip of the forewings is often marked with two or three little 
dusky stripes, in the males. The dusky veining of the under side of 
the hindwings is less distinct in the females than in the other sex, 



LEPIDOPTERA OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 387 

and is sometimes entirely wanting. Specimens of the females have 
been seen, though rarely, with one or two dusky spots on the upper 
side of the forewings, towards the outer margin. 

The eggs of this insect are pyriform, longitudinally ribbed, and 
of a yellowish color. The larva is pale green, very minutely 
sprinkled with darker dots, and with a darker dorsal hne. It grows 
to the length of one inch and a quarter. Its natural food is un- 
known, but it is found abundantly on the leaves of the mustard, 
turnip, radish, cabbage, and other cultivated oleraceous plants, to 
which it is often very injurious. The j^wpa is pale green or white, 
regularly and finely spotted with black. There is a conical projec- 
tion on the front, and a securiform one on the thorax ; and the sides 
of the body are angular and produced in the middle. Length of the 
pupa eight-tenths of an inch. The pupa state lasts about eleven 
days in the summer, and continues through the winter ; there being 
two broods of the larva in the course of one season. 

This species rarely extends further south than the latitude of New 
Hampshire. It has not been figured before. Mr. Kirby's Pontia 
casta may, perhaps, be only a variety of it. 

Deilephila Cham^nerii II. 
PL VII., fig. 2. 

Spldnx Epilohii Harris, Cat. Ins. Mass. in Hitchcock's Report, 1st 
ed., p. 590 (1833).— The same, 2d ed., p. 591 (1835). 

Deilepldla Ghamcenerii Harris, Catalogue of North Amer. Sphin- 
ges. Amer. Journ. Science, vol. 36., p. 305 (1839). 

Olivaceo-brunnea ; capite thoraceque linea laterali alba ; alls prim- 
oribus vitta duplici intermedia, apice attenuata, parte exteriori denta- 
ta pallide ochracea, parte interiori flexuosa fusca ; secundariis nigro- 
fuscis, fascia lata macula rubra includente rosea, intus, ciliisque 
albis ; abdomine punctis sex dorsalibus albis, lateribus fasciis duabus 
nigris et albis prope basin, duabusque albis posterioribus abbreviatis. 

Alar. exp. 2f — 3 unc. 

Olive-brown, with a white lateral line, extending from the front 



388 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

above the eyes on the sides of the thorax, where it is margined 
above with black. Palpi white below. Forewings with a black 
spot at base and another adjacent to a white dash within the middle 
of the outer edge ; a flexuous buff-colored stripe, beginning near the 
base of the inner margin, indented externally, extends to the tip, and 
is bounded within by a dark brown tapering stripe. Hindwings 
blackish, or dusky brown, with a broad sinuous rosy band including 
a deep red spot, and uniting with a white one near the inner angle. 
Fringes of the hindwings, and inner edge of the forewings white. 
Abdomen with a dorsal series of six white dots ; two black and two al- 
ternating white bands on each side of the base, and two narrow trans- 
verse white lines near the tip ; ventral segments edged with white. 
Legs brown ; the tibiae edged externally with white. 

This species, which occurs abundantly in New Hampshire, was 
taken on the northern shore of Lake Superior, and is now figured 
for the first time. It is the American representative of Deilephila 
Grain. Mr. Kirby's B. intermedia^ which has the stripe on the 
forewings of a pale rose-color, and wants the dorsal series of white 
dots, may possibly be a local variety of D. Chamcenerii. The larva 
of our species lives on the Epilohiiim angustifolium. It is bronzed 
green above, and red beneath, with nine round cream-colored spots, 
encircled with black on each side, and a red caudal horn. 

Smerinthtjs modesta H." 
PI. VIL, fig. 7. 

Smerintlms modesta Harris, Catalogue of North American Sphin- 
ges. Amer. Journ. Science, vol. 36., p. 292 (1839). 

Olivaceo-ochracea ; capite parvo non cristato, masculorum anten- 
nis subtus transverse bicUiatis ; ahs primoribus crenatis, striga 
flexuosa transversa basali virguloque stigmaticali pallidis, fascia lata 
undulata media, strigisque duabus crenatis posterioribus, saturate 
olivaceis ; secundariis medio basique purpureis, macula transversa 
nigra fascirique abbreviata fusca prope angulum analem sitis. 

Alar. exp. 5 unc. 



LEPIDOPTERA OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Olive-drab ; head very small, and without a prominent crest ; an- 
tennae of the males transversely biciliated beneath. Forewings 
scalloped, with a transverse sinuous pale line near the base ; a 
whitish comma-shaped stigma on a broad undulated dark olive-colored 
central band, and two transverse undulated lines towards the tip ; 
under side purple in the middle of the disk. Hindwings purple in 
the middle and at base, with a transverse black spot, and an abbre- 
viated dusky blue band near the anal angle. Body very robust, and 
with the legs immaculate. 

One of the largest species of the genus, A single male was taken 
on the northern shore of Lake Superior in the summer of 1848, and 
a fine female was captured in Cambridge, Mass., on the 20th of 
July, 1849, which have afforded the means for a more full and cor- 
rect description than has heretofore been given. This species 
appears to be rare, and has not before been figured. It is the 
representative of the Eui-opean S. Tilice and Quereus. 



Hepiolus argenteomaculatus H. 
PL VII., fig. 6. 

Sepialus argenteomaculatus Harris, Catalogue in Hitchcock's 
Report, 1st ed. p. 591 (1833).— The same, 2d ed. p. 592 (1835). 
— Report on Insects injurious to Vegetation, p. 295 (1841). — 
Gosse, Canadian Naturalist, p. 248 (1840). 

Fusco-ochraceus vel cinereo-brunneus ; alis prlmoribus pallidis, 
ochraceo vel brunneo fasciatis, guttisque duabus prope basin argen- 
teis ; secundariis rubro-vel cinereo-ochraceis, immaculatis. 

Alar. exp. 2f , 3f unc. 

Only two specimens of this fine insect have fallen under my obser- 
vation. They differ much in size and color. The smallest, appa- 
rently a male, was taken in Cambridge, Mass., many years ago. 
When at rest, the wings are very much deflexed, and form a steep 
roof over the back. The body is light brown ; the forewings are 
of a very pale ashen brown color, variegated with darker clouds and 



$0@ LAKE SUPERIOR. 

oblique wavy bands, and are ornamented with two silvery white spots 
near the base, at the inner angles of the discoidal cells ; the anterior 
spot being round and the posterior and larger one triangular. The 
hindwings are Ught ashen brown at base, passing into dusky ochre- 
yellow. The large specimen is a female, and was taken by Profes- 
sor Agassiz on the northern shore of Lake Superior. The body 
is of a dusky ochre-yellow color, tinged on the sides and on the legs 
with red. The forewings are Ught rosy buif, with brownish ochre 
clouds and bands, two silvery spots near the base, and a whitish dot 
near the tip. The hindwings, above, and all the wings beneath, are 
of a deep ochre-yellow color, tinged with red. 

The empty pupa-skins of this or of an alUed species are sometimes 
found on our sea-beaches. 



Arctia Parthenos H. 
PI. VII., fig. 4. 

Alis primoribus fusco-brunneis, maculis sparsis lactifloreis ; secun- 
dariis fulvo-flavis, basi, macula media triangulari, fasciaque postica 
undata nigris ; abdomine supra fusco apice fulvo. 

Alar. exp. unc. 2J. 

Head brown, with a crimson fringe above and between the black 
antennae. Thorax brown above, margined before with an arcuated 
cream-colored band, which is continued on each side of the outer 
edge of the shoulder-covers ; upper edge of the collar crimson-red. 
Forewings dusky brown, with three small cream-colored spots on the 
outer edge ; four spots of the same color in a line near the inner 
margin, and several more scattered on the disk. Hindwings deep 
ochre-yellow, with the base, the basal edge of the inner margin, a 
triangular spot in the middle, adjoining the basal spot, and a broad 
indented band behind, of a black color. Abdomen dusky above, 
tawny at tip and beneath. Legs dusky, thighs and tibias fringed 
with crimson-red hairs. 

This fine species was taken on the northern shore of Lake Supe- 
rior. It belongs to the same group as the European Caja, from all the 



LEPIDOPTERA OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 391 

known varieties of which it differs in having the arcuated white line 
on the thorax, and the black band on the hindwings. The situation 
of this band is not so far back as the black spots found on the hind- 
wings of the allied species. The banded hindwings, with the en- 
tirely black or dusky antennae, will sufficiently distinguish this species 
from the Arctia Americana, a description of which is here added for 
the purpose of comparison. 

Arctia Americana H. 

PI. VII., fig. 5. 

Arctia Americana Harris, Report on Insects injurious to Vegetation, 
p. 246 (1841). 

Alis primoribus brunneis, maculis, rivulisque albidis ; secundariis 
fulvo-flavis, maculis unica media reniformi, tribusque posticis rotundis 
nigris ; abdomine fulvo, dorso nigro-quadrimaculato. 

Alar. exp. unc. 2J. 

Head brown, antennoe white above, with brown pectinations. 
Thorax brown above, margined before with an arcuated yellowish 
white band, which is continued on the outer edge of the shoulder- 
covers ; upper edge of the collar crimson-red. Forewings coffee- 
brown, with three yellowish white spots on the outer edge, and 
crossed by irregular anastomozing yellowish white lines. Hind- 
wings bright ochre-yellow, with a large reniform central black spot, 
two round black spots behind, a third smaller spot near the anal 
angle, and a black dot between the middle and the inner margin. 
Abdomen tawny, with four blackish dorsal spots. Legs dusky, the 
thighs and anterior tibise fringed with red hairs ; the hindmost tarsi 
whitish, annulated with black. 

This species, which is now for the first time figured, was taken by 
Mr. Edward Doubleday, near Trenton Falls. From the Caja it is 
distinguished, like the Parthenos, by the arcuated white margin of the 
thorax, &c. The arrangement of the white spots and rivulets on 
the forewings is the same as in the European species. 



lake superior. 

Ennomos macularia H. 
PI. VII., fig. 3. 

Flava ; alls angulatis subdentatis, anticis apice sinuato-truncatis, 
prope basin apicemque brunneo maculato-fasciatis ; omnibus postice 
macula magna rhomboidea brunnea marginem posticum angulumque 
analem attingente. 

Alar. exp. 1| unc. 

This pretty Geometer lias the form of Ennomos (JEurymene) 
dolahraria, and perhaps belongs to the same subgenus. It is found 
in Massachusetts as well as on the northern shore of Lake Superior. 

The antennoe are brown, and are pectinated only in the males. 
The tongue is half as long as the body, which, with the upper side 
of the forewings, is citron-yellow ; the hindwings and under sides 
are somewhat paler. The forewings have a rust-brown costal spot 
near the shoulders, a transverse row of spots near the base, a stig- 
matical dot, three little spots near the tip, and a very large lozenge- 
_ shaped spot at the anal angle, of the same brown color, the large 
spot being bordered before and behind with darker brown. The 
hindwings have a central brownish dot, and a large pale brown spot, 
bordered before and behind with a darker line at the anal angle, 
which also is deeply tmged with brown. 



List of Lepidopterous Insects, taken hy Professor L. Agassiz on the 
northern shore of Lake Superior. 

I. Papiliones. 
Pontia Oleracea Harris. 
Colias Pelidne ? Boisduval. 

" Chrysotheme ? Esper. var.? Boisd. 
Polyommatus. 
Limenitis Arthemis Drury. 
Danaus Archippus F. 

Argynnis Aphrodite F. (nee Daphnis, Cr.., nee Cybele, F.) 
Melitsea Myrina Cramer. 

" Cocyta Or. 



LEPIDOPTERA OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Vanessa J. album Boisd. 
" Cardui L. 

II. Sphinges. 

.ffigeria exitlosa Say. 

Deilephila ChamEenerii H. 

Sphinx (Letbia Hiibn.) Kabnise Smith — Abbott. 

Smerintbus modesta H. 

Alypia octomaculata F. 

in. Phal^n^e. 
1. Bombyces. 

LItbosIa (Eubapbe Hiibn.) aurantiaca Hiibn. 
Arctia Partbenos H. 
Clisiocampa silvatica H. var. 
Hepiolus argenteomaculatus H. var. 

2. Noctuce. 
Apatela. 

Agrotis devastator Brace. 



Noctua clandestlna H. 
Hadena arnica Stevens. 



Mamestra. 
Heliotbis. 



3. Geometrce. 



Crocipbora transversata Drury. 
Ennomos macularia H. 
Zerene ? 

Melanippe. 
Cidaria ? 

Also tbree more Geometrce, of undetermined genera. 

4. Pyralides. 

Macrocblla pulveralis, H Cat. ms. 
Anania octomaculata ? L. 



394 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

5. Tor trices. 



Two species, undetermined. 

Crambus. 
Pterophorus. 



6. TinecB. 
( Crambidce.) 

7. Alucitce. 



The collections of insects of other orders made during our excur- 
sion have not yet been sufficiently worked out to allow us to give an 
account of their contents. A considerable number of Neuroptera and 
Orthoptera have, however, been collected ; Hymeuoptera, Diptera, 
and Hemiptera, have also not been neglected, though of the latter 
chiefly Hydrocorisae have been found. 

The Crustacea, crawfishes, and other small freshwater shrimps, 
as well as the leeches and other worms, have also attracted our at- 
tention, and some interesting species have been collected ; but the 
difficulty of establishing their synonymy induces me to postpone the 
publication of their description. l. a. 



X. 

THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA ABOUT LAKE SUPERIOR. 



So much has been said and written within the last fifteen years, 
upon the dispersion of erratic boulders and drift, both in Europe 
and America, that I should not venture to introduce this subject 
again, if I were not conscious of having essential additions to present 
to those interested in the investigation of these subjects. 

It will be remarked by all who have followed the discussions re- 
specting the transportation of loose materials over great distances 
from the spot where they occurred primitively, that the most minute 
and the most careful investigations have been made by those geolo- 
gists who have attempted to establish a new theory of their transpor- 
tation by the agency of ice. 

The part of those who claim currents as the cause of this trans- 
portation has been more generally negative, inasmuch as, satisfied 
with their views, they have generally been contented simply to deny 
the new theory and its consequences, rather than investigate anew 
the field upon which they had founded their opinions. Without 
being taxed with partiality, I may, at the outset, insist upon this 
difference in the part taken by the two contending parties. For 
since the publication of Sefstroem's paper upon the drift of Sweden, 
in which very valuable information is given respecting the phenome- 
na observed in that peninsula, and the additional data furnished by 
de Verneuil and Murchison upon the same country and the plains of 
Russia, the classical ground for erratic phenomena has been left 
almost untouched by all except the advocates of the glacial theory. 
I need only refer to the investigations of M. de Charpentier, Escher, 
Von DerUnth and Studer, and more particularly to those extensive 
and most minute researches of Prof. Guyot in Switzerland, with- 



396 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

out Speaking of my own and some contributions from visitors, as 
the Martins, James Forbes and others, to justify my assertion that 
no important fact respecting the loose materials spread all over 
Switzerland has been added by the advocates of currents since the 
days of Saussure, DeLuc, Escher and Von Buch ; whilst Prof, 
Guyot has most conclusively shown that the different erratic basins 
in Switzerland are not only distinct from each other, as was already 
known before, but that in each the loose materials are arranged 
in well-determined regvdar order, showing precise relations to the 
centres of distribution, from which these materials originated ; an 
arrangement which agrees in every particular with the arrangement 
of loose fragments upon the surface of any glacier, but which no 
cause acting convulsively could have produced.* 

The results of these investigations are plainly that the boulders 
found at a distance from the central Alps, originated from their 
higher summits and valleys, and were carried down at different suc- 
cessive periods in a regular manner, forming uninterrupted walls and 
ridges, which can be traced from their starting point to their 
extreme peripheric distribution. 

I have myself shown that there are such centres of distribution in 
Scotland and England and Ireland. And these facts have been 
since traced in detail in various parts of the British Islands by Dr. 
Buckland, Sir Ch. Lyell, Mr. Darwin, Mr. McLachlan and Profes- 
sor James D. Forbes, pointing clearly to the main mountain groups 
as to so many distinct centres of dispersion of these loose materials. 

Similar phenomena have been shown in the Pyrenees, in the 
Black Forest, and in the Vosges, showing beyond question, that 
whatever might have been the cause of the dispersion of erratic 
boulders, there are several separate centres of their distribution to 
be distinguished in Europe. But there is another question connect- 
ed with this local distribution of boulders which requires particular 
investigation, the confusion of which with the former has no doubt 



*A comparison of the maps showng the arrangement of the moraines upon the 
glacier of the Aar in my Syst^mc Glaciaire, with the map which Prof. Guyot is about to 
publish of the distribution of the erratic boulders in Switzerland, will show more fully 
the identity of the two phenomena. 



THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA. 397 

greatly contributed to retard our real progress in understanding the 
general question of the distribution of erratics. 

It is well known that Northern Europe is strewed with boulders, 
extending over European Russia, Poland, Northern Germany, Hol- 
land and Belgium. The origin of these boulders is far north in Nor- 
way, Sweden, Lapland and Liefland, but they are now diffused over 
the extensive plains west of the Ural Mountains. Their arrange- 
ment, however, is such that they cannot be referred to one single 
point of origin, but only in a general way to the northern tracts of 
land which rise above the level of the sea in the Arctic regions. 
Whether these boulders were transported by the same agency as 
those arising from distinct centres, on the main continent of Europe, 
has been the chief point of discussion. For my own part, I have 
indeed no doubt that the extreme consequences to which we are 
naturally carried by admitting that ice was also the agent in trans- 
porting the northern erratics to their present positions, has been the 
chief objection to the view that the Alpine boulders have been 
distributed by glaciers. 

It seemed easier to account for the distribution of the northern 
erratics by currents, and this view appearing satisfactory to those 
who supported it, they at once went further, and opposed the glacial 
theory even in those districts where the glaciers seemed to give a 
more natural and more satisfactory explanation of the phenomena. 
To embrace the whole question it should be ascertained. 

First, Whether the northern erratics were transported at the 
same time as the local Alpine boulders, and if not, which of the 
phenomena preceded the other; and again, if the same cause 
acted in both cases, or if one of the causes can be applied to one 
series of these phenomena, and the other cause to the other series. 
An investigation of the erratic phenomena in North America seems 
to me likely to settle this question, as the northern erratics occur 
herein an undisturbed continuation over tracts (f land far more 
extensive than those in which they have been observed in Europe. 
For my own part, I have already traced them from the eastern 
shores of Nova Scotia, through New England and the North West- 
ern States of North America and the Canadas as far as the western 
extremity of Lake Superior, a region embracing about thirty de- 



398 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

grees of longitude. Here, as in Northern Europe, the boulders 
evidently originated farther north than their present location, and 
have been moved universally in a main direction from north to 
south. 

From data which are, however, rather incomplete, it can be 
further admitted that similar phenomena occur further west across 
the whole continent, everywhere presenting the .same relations. 
That is to say, everywhere pointing to the north as to the region of 
the boulders, which generally disappear about latitude 38°. 

Without entering at present into a full discussion of any theoreti- 
cal views of the subject, it is plain that any theory, to be satisfactory, 
should embrace both the extensive northern phenomena in Europe 
and North America, and settle the relation of these phenomena to 
the well-authenticated local phenomena of Central Europe. 

Whether America itself has its special local circumscribed cen- 
tres of distribution or not, remains to be seen. It seems, however, 
from a few facts observed in the White Mountains, that this chain, 
as well as the mountains of north-eastern New York, have not been 
exclusively — and for the whole duration of the transportation of 
these materials — under the influence of the cause which has distrib- 
uted the erratics through such wide space over the continent of 
North America. But whether this be the case or not, (and I 
trust local investigations will soon settle the question,) I maintain 
that the cause which has transported these boulders in the American 
continent must have acted simultaneously over the whole ground 
which these boulders cover, as they present throughout the continent 
an uninterrupted sheet of loose materials, of the same general 
nature, connected in the same general manner, and evidently dis- 
persed at the same time. 

Moreover, there is no ground, at present, to doubt the simulta- 
neous dispersion of the erratics over Northern Europe and Northern 
America. So that the cause which transported them, whatever it 
may be, must have acted simultaneously over the whole tract of land 
west of the Ural Mountains, and east of the Rocky Mountains, with- 
out assuming anything respecting Northern Asia, which has not yet 
been studied in this respect '; that is to say, at the same time, over 
a space embracing two hundred degrees of longitude. 



THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA. 399 

Again, the action of this cause must have been such, and I insist 
strongly upon this point, as a fundamental one, the momentum with 
which it acted must have been such, that after being set in motion 
in the north, with a power sufficient to carry the large boulders 
which are found everywhere over this vast extent of land, it vanished 
or was stopped after reaching the thirty-fifth degree of northern 
latitude. 

Now it is my deliberate opinion that natural philosophy and math- 
ematics may settle the question, whether a body of water of sufficient 
extent to produce such phenomena can be set in motion with sufficient 
velocity to move all these boulders, and nevertheless stop before hav- 
ing swept over the whole surface of the globe. Hydrographers are 
familiar with the action of currents, with their speed, and with the 
power with which they can act. They know also how they are distrib- 
uted over our globe. And, if we institute a comparison, it will be seen 
that there is nowhere a current running from the poles towards the 
lower latitudes, either in the northern or southern hemisphere, cover- 
ing a space equal to one-tenth of the currents which should have 
existed to carry the erratics into their present position. The widest 
current is west of the Pacific, which runs parallel to the equator, 
across the whole extent of that sea from east to west, and the great- 
est width of which is scarcely fifty degrees. This current, as a 
matter of course, establishes a regular rotation between the waters 
flowing from the polar regions towards lower latitudes. 

The Gulf Stream on the contrary runs from west to east, and dies 
out towards Europe and Africa, and is compensated by the currents 
from Baffin's Bay and Spitzbergen emptying into the Atlantic, while 
the current of the Pacific, moving towards Asia and carrying floods 
of water in that direction, is maintained chiefly by antarctic currents, 
and those which follow the western shore of America from Behring's 
Straits. Wherever they are limited by continents, we see that 
the waters of these currents, even when they extend over hundreds of 
degrees of latitude, as the Gulf Stream does in its whole course, are 
deflected where they cannot follow a straight course. 

Now without appealing with more detail to the mechanical con- 
ditions involved in this inquiry, I ask every unprejudiced mind 
acquainted with the distribution of the northern boulders, whether 



400 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

there was any geographical limitation to the supposed northern 
current to cause it to leave the northern erratics of Europe in such 
regular order, with a constant bearing from north to south, and to 
form, on its southern termination, a wide, regular zone from Asia to 
the western shores of Europe, north of the fiftieth degree of lati- 
tude, before it had reached the great barrier of the Alps ? I ask 
whether there was such a barrier in the unlimited plains which 
stretch from the Arctic seas uninterrupted over the whole northern 
continent of America as far down as the Gulf of Mexico ? 

I ask, again, why the erratics are circumscribed within the north- 
ern limits of the temperate zone, if their transportation is owing to 
the action of water currents ? Does not, on the contrary, this most 
surprising limit within the artic and northern temperate zones, and 
in the same manner within the antarctic and southern temperate 
zones, distinctly show that the cause of transportation is connected 
with the temperature or climate of the countries over which the 
phenomena were produced. If it were otherwise, why are there no 
systems of erratics with an east and west bearing, or in the main di- 
rection of the most extensive currents flowing at present over the 
surface of our globe ? 

It is a matter of fact, of undeniable fact, for which the theory 
has to account, that in the two hemispheres the erratics have direct 
reference to the polar regions, and are circumscribed within the 
arctics and the colder part of the temperate zone. This fact is as 
plain as the other fact, that the local distribution of boulders has 
reference to high mountain ranges, to groups of land raised above 
the level of the sea into heights, the temperature of which is lower 
than the surrounding plains. And what is still more astonishing, 
the extent of the local boulders, from their centre of distribution, 
reaches levels, the mean annual temperature of which corresponds 
in a surprising manner with the mean annual temperature of the 
southern limit of the northern erratics. 

We have, therefore, in this agreement a strong evidence in favor 
of the view that both the phenomena of local mountain erratics in 
Europe and of northern erratics in Europe and America have 
probably been produced by the same cause. 

The chief difficulty is in conceiving the possibility of the formation of 



THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA. 401 

a sheet of ice sufficiently large to carry the northern erratics into their 
present limits of distribution ; but this difficulty is greatly removed 
when we can trace, as in the Alps, the progress of the boulders 
under the same aspect from the glaciers now existing, down into 
regions where they no longer exist, but where the boulders and other 
phenomena attending their transportation show distinctly that they 
once existed. 

Without extending further this argumentation, I would call the 
attention of the unprejudiced observer to the fact, that those who 
advocate currents as the cause of the transportation of erratics, have, 
up to this day, failed to show, in a single instance, that currents can 
produce all the different phenomena connected with the transporta- 
tion of the boulders which are observed everywhere in the Alps, and 
which are still daily produced there by the small glaciers yet in 
existence. Never do we find that water leaves the boulders which it 
carries along in regular walls of mixed materials ; nor do currents 
anywhere produce upon the hard rocks in situ the peculiar grooves 
and scratches which we see everywhere under the glacier and within 
the limits of their ordinary oscillations. 

Water may polish the rocks, but it nowhere leaves straight 
scratches upon their surface ; it may furrow them, but these furrows 
are sinuous, acting more powerfully upon the soft parts of the rocks 
or fissures already existing ; whilst glaciers smooth and level uni- 
formly, the hardest parts equally with the softest, and, hke a hard 
file, rub to uniform continuous surfaces the rocks upon which they 
move. 

But now let us return to our special subject, the erratics of North 
America. 

The phenomena of drift are more complicated about Lake Supe- 
rior than I have seen them anywhere else ; for, besides the general 
phenomena which occur everywhere, there are some peculiarities 
noticed which are to be ascribed to the lake as such, and which we 
do not find in places where no large sheet of water has been brought 
into contact with the erratic phenomena. In the first place, we 
notice about Lake Superior an extensive tract of polished, grooved 
and scratched rocks, which present here the same uniform character 
which they have everywhere. As there is so little disposition, among 
27 



402 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

SO many otherwise intelligent geologists, to perceive the facts as they 
are, whenever they bear upon the question of drift, I cannot but 
repeat, what I have already mentioned more than once, but what I 
have observed again here over a tract of some fifteen hundred 
miles, that the rocks are everywhere smoothed, rounded, grooved 
and furrowed in a uniform direction. The heterogeneous materials 
of which the rocks consist are cut to one continuous uniform level, 
showing plainly that no diflference in the polish and abrasion can be 
attributed to the greater or less resistance on the part of the rocks, 
but that a continuous rasp cut down everything, adapting itself, how- 
ever, to the general undulations of the country, but nevertheless 
showing, in this close adaptation, a most remarkable continuity in 
its action. 

That the power which produced these phenomena moved in the 
main from north to south, is distinctly shown by the form of the hills, 
which present abrupt slopes, rough and sharp corners towards the 
south, while they are all smoothed off towards the north. 

Indeed, here, as in Norway and Sweden, there is on all the hills a 
lee-side and a strike-side. As has been observed in Norway and 
Sweden, the polishing is very perfect in many places, sometimes 
strictly as brilliant as a polished metallic surface, and everywhere 
these surfaces are more or less scratched and furrowed, and both 
scratches and furrows are rectilinear, crossing each other under 
various angles : however, never varying many points of the compass 
on the same spot, but in general showing that where there are 
deviations from the most prominent direction, they are influenced by 
the undulations of the soil. It has been said, that the main direction 
of these striae was from north-west to south-east, but I have found it 
as often strictly from north to south, or even from north-east to 
south-west ; and if we are to express a general result, we should say 
that the direction, assigned by all our observations to the various 
scratches, tends to show that they have been formed under the influ- 
ence of a movement from north to south, varying more or less to the 
east and west, according to local influences in the undulations of the 
soil. It is, indeed, a very important fact, that scratches which seem 
to have been produced at no great intervals from each other, are not 
absolutely parallel, but may diverge for ten, fifteen, or more degrees. 



THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA. 403 

There is one feature in these phenomena, however, in which we 
never observe any variation. The continuity of these lines is abso- 
lutely the same everywhere. They are rectilinear and continuous, 
and cannot be better compared than with the effects of stones or 
other hard materials dragged in the same direction upon flat or roll- 
ing surfaces ; they form simple scratches extending for yards in 
straight lines, or breaking off for a short space to continue again in a 
straight line in the same direction, just as if interrupted bv a jerk. 
There are also deeper scratches of the same kind, presenting the 
same phenomena, only, perhaps, traceable for a greater distance 
than the finer ones. These scratches, instead of appearing like the 
tracing of diamonds upon glass, as the former do, would rather assume 
the appearance of a deeper groove, made by the point of a graver, or 
perhaps still more closely resemble the scratches which a cart-wheel 
would produce upon polished marble, if the wheel were chained, and 
coarse sand spread over the floor. The appearance of the rock, 
crushed by the moving mass, is especially distinct in limestone rocks, 
where grooves are seldom nicely cut, but present the appearance of 
a violent pressure combined with the grooving power, thus giving to 
the groove a character which is quite peculiar, and which at once 
strikes an observer who has been familiar with its characteristic 
aspect. Now, I do not know upon what the assertions of some 
geologists rest, that gravel moved by water under strong heavy 
currents will produce similar effects. Wherever I have gone since 
studying these phenomena, I have looked for such cases, and have 
never yet found modern gravel currents produce anything more than 
a smooth surface with undulating furrows following the cracks in the 
rocks, or hollowing their softer parts ; but continuous straight lines, 
especially such crushed Unes and straight furrows, I have never 
seen. 

When we know how extensive the action of water carrying mud 
and gravel is on every shore and in every water current, — when we 
can trace this action almost everywhere, and nowhere find it similar 
to the phenomena just described, I cannot imagine upon what ground 
these phenomena are still attributed to the agency of currents. This 
is the less rational as we have at present, in all high mountain chains 
of the temperate zone, other agents, the glaciers, producing these 



404 LAKE SUPEKIOR. 

very same phenomena, with precisely the same characters, to which, 
therefore, a sound philosophy should ascribe, at least conditionally, 
the northern and Alpine polished surfaces, and scratched and grooved 
rocks, or at least acknowledge that the effect produced by the ac- 
tion of glaciers more nearly resembles these erratic phenomena than 
does that which results from the action of currents. But such is the 
prejudice of many geologists, that those keen faculties of distinction 
and generalization, that power of superior perception and discrimina- 
tion which have led them to make such brilliant discoveries in geology 
in general, seem to abandon them at once as soon as they look at the 
erratics. The objection made by a venerable geologist, that the cold 
required to form and preserve such glaciers, for any length of time, 
would freeze him to death, is as childish as the apprehension that the 
heavy ocean currents, the action of which he sees everywhere, might 
have swept him away.* 

Now that these phenomena have been observed extensively, we 
may derive also some instruction from the limits of their geographi- 
cal extent. Let us see, therefore, where these polished, scratched 
and furrowed rocks have been observed. 

In the first place they occur everywhere in the north within cer- 
tain limits of the arctics, and through the colder parts of the tem- 
perate zone. They occur also in the southern hemisphere, within 
parallel Umits, but in the plains of the tropics, and even in the 
warmer parts of the temperate zone we find no trace of these phe- 
nomena, and nevertheless the action of currents could not be less 
there, and could not at any time have been less there than in the 
colder climates. It is true, similar phenomena occur in Central 
Europe and have been noticed in Central Asia, and even in the 
Andes of South America, but these always in higher regions, at 
definite levels above the surface of the sea, everywhere indicating a 
connection between their extent and the colder temperature of the 
places over which they are traced. 

More recently, a step towards the views I entertain of this subject, 
has been made by those geologists who would ascribe them to the 
agency of icebergs. Here, as in my glacial theory, ice is made 

* Berlin Academy, 1846. 



THE ERKATIC PHENOMENA. 405 

the agent ; floating ice is supposed to have ground and polished the 
surfaces of rocks, while I consider^ them to have been acted ujjon by 
terrestrial glaciers. To settle this difference we have a test which is 
as irresistible as the other arguments already introduced. 

Let us investigate the mode of action, the mode of transportation 
of icebergs, and let us examine whether this cause is adequate to 
produce phenomena for which it is made to account. As mentioned 
above, the polished surfaces are continuous over hills, and in depres- 
sions of the soil, and the scratches which run over such undulating 
surfaces are nevertheless continuous in straight lines. If we imagine 
icebergs moving upon shoals, no doubt they would scratch and 
polish the rocks in a way similar to moving glaciers. But upon such 
grounds they would sooner or later be stranded, and if they remain- 
ed loose enough to move, they would, in their gyratory movements, 
produce curved lines, and mark the spots Avhere they had been 
stranded with particular indications of their prolonged action. But 
nowhere upon arctic ground do we find such indications. Every- 
where the polished and scratched surfaces are continuous in straight 
juxtaposition. 

Phenomena analogous to those produced by icebergs would only 
be seen along the sea-shores ; and if the theory of drifted icebergs 
were correct, we should have, all over those continents where erratic 
phenomena occur, indications of retreating shores as far as the erratic 
phenomena are found. But there is no such thing to be observed 
over the whole extent of the North American continent, nor over 
Northern Europe and Asia, as far as the northern erratics extend. 
From the arctics to the southernmost limit of the erratic distribu- 
tion, we find nowhere the indications of the action of the sea as 
directly connected with the production of the erratic phenomena. 
And wherever the marine deposits rest upon the polished surfaces 
of ground and scratched rocks, they can be shown to be deposits 
formed since the grooving and polishing of the rocks, in consequence 
of the subsidence of those tracts of land upon which such deposits 
occur. 

Again, if we take for a moment into consideration the immense 
extent of land covered by erratic phenomena, and view them as 
produced by drifted icebergs, we must acknowledge that the ice- 



406 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

bergs of the present period at least, are insufficient to account 
for them, as they are limited to a narrower zone. And to bring 
icebergs in any way within the extent which would answer for 
the extent of the distribution of erratics, we must assume that 
the northern ice fields, from which these icebergs could be detach- 
ed and float southwards, were much larger at the time they pro- 
duced such extensive phenomena than they are now. That is to 
say, we must assume an ice period ; and if we look into the circum- 
stances we shall find that this ice period, to answer to the phenome- 
na, should be nothing less than an extensive cap of ice upon both 
poles This is the very theory which I advocate ; and unless the 
advocates of an iceberg theory go to that length in their premises, I 
venture to say, without fear of contradiction, that they will find the 
source of their icebergs fall short of the requisite conditions which 
they must assume, upon due consideration, to account for the whole 
phenomena as they have really been observed. 

But without discussing any farther the theoretical views of the 
question, let me describe more minutely the facts as observed on the 
northern shores of Lake Superior. The polished surfaces, as such, 
are even, undulating, and terminate always above the rough lee-side 
turned to the south, unless upon gentle declivities, where the polish- 
ed surfaces extend in unbroken continuity upon the southern surfaces 
of the hills, as well as upon their northern slopes. On their eastern 
and western flanks, shallow valleys running east and west are as 
uniformly polished as those which run north and south ; and this fact 
is more and more evident, wherever scratches and furrows are also 
well preserved and distinctly seen, and by their bearings we can 
ascertain most minutely, the direction of the onward movement which 
produced the whole phenomena. Nothing is more striking in this 
respect than the valleys or depressions of the soil running east and 
west, where we see the scratches crossing such undulations at right 
angles, descending along the southern gentle slope of a hill, travers- 
ing the flat bottom below, and rising again up the next hill south, in 
unbroken continuity. Examples of the kind can be seen everywhere 
in those narrow inlets, with shallow waters intersecting the innumera- 
ble highlands along the northern shores of Lake Superior, where the 
scratches and furrows can be traced under water from one shore to 



THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA. 407 

the other, and where they at times ascend steep hills, which they 
cross at right angles along their northern slope, even when the 
southern slope, not steeper in itself, faces the south with rough 
escarpments. 

The scratches and furrows, though generally running north and 
south, and deviating slightly to the east and west, present in various 
places remarkable anomalies, even in their general course along the 
eastern shore of the lake. Between Miehipicotin and Sault St. 
Marie we more frequently see a deflection to the west than a due 
north and south course, which is rather normal along the northern 
shore proper, between Miehipicotin and other islands, and from the 
Pic to Fort William ; the deep depression of the lake being no doubt 
the cause of such a deviation, as large masses of ice could accumu- 
late in this extensive hollow cavity before spreading again more uni- 
formly beyond its limits. To the oscillations of the whole mass in its 
southerly movement, according to the inequalities of the surfaces, 
we must ascribe the crossing of the straight lines at acute angles, as we 
observe also at the present day under the glaciers, as they swell and 
subside, and hence meet with higher and lower obstacles in their 
irregular course between the Alpine valleys. 

In deep, narrow chasms, however, Ave find now and then greater 
deviations from the normal direction of the striae, where considerable 
masses of ice could accumulate, and move between steep walls under a 
lateral pressure of the masses moving onwards from the north. Such a 
chasm is seen between Spar Island and the main land opposite Prince's 
Location, south of Fort William, where the furrows and scratches run 
nearly east and west. But here also, there is no tumultuous disturb- 
ance in the continuation of the phenomena, such as would occur if ice- 
bergs were floated and stranded against the southern barrier. The 
same continuity of even, polished surfaces, with their scratches and 
furrows, prevails here as elsewhere. The angles which these scratches 
form with each other are very acute, generally not exceeding 10^ ; 
but at times they diverge more, forming angles of 15°, 20° and 25°. 
In a few instances, I have even found localities where they crossed 
each other at angles of no less than 30^ ; but these are rare excep- 
tions. It may sometimes be noticed that the lines running in one 
direction form a system by themselves, varying very little from strict 



408 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

parallelism ■with each other, but crossing another system, more or less 
strongly marked, of other lines equally parallel with each other. At 
other times, a system of lines, strongly marked and diverging very 
slightly, seem to pass over another system, in which the lines form 
various angles with each other. Again, there are places, — and this 
is the most common case, — where the lines diverge slightly, following, 
however, generally one main direction, which is crossed by fewer 
lines, forming more open angles. These diiferences, no doubt, indi- 
cate various oscillations in the movement of the mass which produced 
the lines, and show probably its successive action, with more or less 
i itensity, upon the same point at successive periods, in accordance 
with the direction of the moving force at each interval. The same 
variations within precisely the same limits may be noticed in our day 
on the margin of the glaciers produced by the increase or diminution 
of the bulk of their mass, and the changes in the rate of their move- 
ment. 

The loose materials which produced, in their onward movement 
Tinder the pressure f ce, such polishing and grooving, consisted of 
various sized boulders, pebbles and gravels, down to the most minute 
sand and loamy powder. Accumulations of such materials are found 
everywhere upon these smooth surfaces, and in their arrangement 
they present everywhere the most striking contrast when compared 
with deposits accumulated under the agency of water. Indeed, we 
nowhere find this glacial drift regularly stratified, being everywhere 
irregular accumulations of loose materials, scattered at random with- 
out selection, the coarsest and most minute particles being piled 
irregularly in larger or smaller heaps, the greatest boulders standing 
sometimes uppermost, or in th j centre, or in any position among 
smaller pebbles and impalpable powder. 

And these materials themselves are scratched, polished and fur- 
rowed, and the scratches and furrows are rectilinear as upon the 
rocks in situ underneath, not bruised simply, as the loose materials 
carried onward by currents or driven against the shores by the tides, 
but regularly scratched, as fragments of hard materials would be if 
they had been fastened during their friction against each other, just 
as we observe them upon the lower surface of glaciers where all the 
loose materials set in ice, as stones in their setting, are pressed and 



THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA. 409 

rubbed against underlying rocks. But the setting here being simply 
ice, these loose materials, fast at one time and movable another, and 
fixed and loosened again, have rubbed against the rock below in all 
possible positions ; and hence not only their rounded form, but also 
their rectilinear grooving. How such grooves could be produced 
under the action of currents, I leave to the advocates of such a 
theory to show, as soon as they shall be prepared for it. 

I should not omit here to mention a fact which, in my opinion, has 
a great theoretical importance, namely, that in the northern erratics, 
even the largest boulders, as far as I know, are rounded, and 
scratched and polished, at least, all those which are found beyond 
the immediate vicinity of the higher mountain ranges ; showing that 
the accumulations of ice which moved the northern erratics covered 
the whole country ; and this view is sustained by another set of facts 
equally important, namely, that the highest ridges, the highest 
rugged mountains, at least, in this continent and north of the Alps in 
Europe, are as completely polished and smoothed as the lower lands, 
and only a very few peaks seem to have risen above the sheet of ice ; 
whilst, in the Alps, the summits of the mountains stand generally 
above these accumulations of ice, and have supplied the surface of 
the glaciers with large numbers of angular boulders, which have been 
carried upon the back of glaciers to the lower valleys and adjacent 
plains without losing their angular forms. 

With respect to the irregular accumulation of drift-materials in the 
north, I may add that there is not only no indication of stratification 
among them, such unquestionably as water would have left, but 
that the very nature of these materials shows plainly that they are of 
terrestrial origin ; for the mud which sticks between them adheres to 
all the httle roughnesses of the pebbles, fills them out, and has the 
peculiar adhesive character of the mud ground under the glaciers, 
and difiering entirely in that respect from the gravels and pebbles 
and sands washed by water currents, which leave each pebble 
clean, and never form adhering masses, unless penetrated by an 
infiltration of limestone. 

Another important fact respecting this glacial diift consists in 
the universal absence of marine as well as freshwater fossils in its 
interior, a fact which strengthens the view that they have been 



410 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



accunmlated by the agency of strictly terrestrial glaciers ; such is, 
at least, the case everywhere far from the sea-shore. But we may 
conclude that these ancient glaciers reached, upon various points, the 
sea-shore at the time of their greatest extension, just as they do at 
present in Spitzbergen and other arctic shores ; and that therefore, 
in such proximity, phenomena of contact should be observed, indi- 
cating the onward movement of glacial material into the ocean, such 
as the accumulation within these materials of marine fossil remains, 
and also the influence of the tidal movements upon them. And now 
such is really the case. Nearer the sea-shores we observe distinctly, 
in some accumulations of the drift, faint indications of the action of 
the tide reaching the lower surface of glaciers, and the remodeling, 
to some extent, of the materials which there poured into the sea. A 
beautiful example of the kind may be observed near Cambridge, 
along Charles River, not far from Mount Auburn, where the unstrati- 




fied glacial drift (a) presents in its upper masses strictly the charac- 
ters of true terrestrial glacial accumulation, but shows underneath 
faint indications (6) of the action of tides. Above, regular tidal 
strata (c) are observed, formed probably after the masses below had 
subsided. The surface of this accumulation is covered with soil (c?). 
The period at which these phenomena took place cannot be fully 
determined, nor is it easy to ascertain whether all glacial drift is 
contemporaneous. It would seem, however, as if the extensive accu- 
mulation of drift all around the northern pole in Europe, Asia and 
America was of the same age as the erratics of the Alps. The cli- 
matic circumstances capable of accumulating such large masses of 



THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA. 411 

ice around the north pole, having, no doubt, extended their influence 
over the temperate zone, and probably produced, in high mountain 
chains, as the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Black Forest, and the Vosges, 
such accumulations of snow and ice, as may have produced the erratic 
phenomena of those districts. But extensive changes must have 
taken place in the appearance of the continents over which we trace 
erratic phenomena, since we observe in the Old World, as well as in 
North America, extensive stratified deposits containing fossils which 
rest upon the erratics ; and as we have all possible good reasons and 
satisfactory evidence for admitting that the erratics were transpoi-ted 
by the agency of terrestrial glaciers, and that therefore the tracts of 
land over which they occur, stood at that time above the level of the 
sea, Ave are led to the conclusion that these continents have subsided 
since that period below the level of the sea, and that over their 
inundated portions animal life has spread, remains of organized beings 
have been accumulated, which are now found in a fossil state in the 
deposits formed under those sheets of water. 

Such deposits occur at various levels in different parts of North 
America. They have been noticed about Montreal, on the shores of 
Lake Champlain, in Maine and also in Sweden and Russia ; and, 
what is most important, they are not everywhere at the same absolute 
level above the surface of the ocean, showing that both the subsidence, 
and the subsequent upheaval which has again brought them above 
the level of the sea, have been unequal ; and that we should there- 
fore be very cautious in our inferences respecting both the continental 
circumstg,nces under which the ancient glaciers were formed, and also 
the extent of the sea afterward, as compared with its present limits. 

The contrast between the unstratified drift and the subsequently 
stratified deposits is so great, that they rest everywhere unconform- 
ably upon each other, showing distinctly the difference of the agency 
under which they were accumulated. This unconformable superposi- 
tion of marine drift upon glacial drift is also beautifully shown at the 
above mentioned locality near Cambridge. (See Diagram.) In this 
case the action of tides in the accumulation of the stratified materials 
is plainly seen. 

The various heights at which these stratified deposits occur, above 
the level of the sea, show plainly, that since their accumulation, the 



412 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

main land has been lifted above the ocean at different rates in differ- 
ent parts of the country ; and it would be a most important in\^esti- 
gation to have their absolute level, in order more fully to ascertain 
the last changes which our continents have undergone. 

From the above mentioned facts, it must be at once obvious that 
the various kinds of loose materials, all over the northern hemisphere, 
have been accumulated, not only under different circumstances, but 
during long-continued subsequent distinct periods, and that great 
changes have taken place since their deposition, before the present 
state of things was fully established. 

To the first period, — the ice period, as I have called it, — ^belong 
all the phenomena connected with the transportation of erratic bould- 
ers, the polishing, scratching and furrowing of the rocks and the 
accumulation of unstratified, scratched, and loamy drift. During that 
period, the main land seems to have been, to some extent at least, 
higher above the level of the sea than now ; as we observe, on the 
shores of Great Britain, Norway and Sweden, as well as on the east- 
ern shores of North America, the polished surfaces dipping under 
the level of the ocean, which encroaches everywhere upon the erratics 
proper, effaces the pohshed surfaces and remodels the glacial drift. 
During these periods, large terrestrial animals lived upon both conti- 
nents, the fossil remains of which are found in the drift of Siberia, 
as well as of this continent. A fossil elephant recently discovered in 
Vermont adds to the resemblance, already pointed out, between the 
northern drift of Europe and that of North America ; for fossils of 
that genus are now known to occur upon the northernmost point of 
the western extremity of North iVmerica, in New England, in North- 
ern Europe, as well as all over Siberia. 

To the second period we would refer the stratified deposits resting 
upon drift, which indicate that during their deposition the northern 
continent had again extensively subsided under the surface of the 
ocean. 

During this period, animals, identical with those which occur in 
the northern seas, spread widely over parts of the globe which are 
now again above the level of the ocean. But, as this last elevation 
seems to have been gradual, and is even still going on in our day, 
there is no possibihty of tracing more precisely, at least for the 



THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA. 413 

present, the limit between that epoch and the present state of things. 
Their continuity seems ahnost demonstrated by the identity of fossil 
shells found in these stratified deposits, with those now living along 
the present shores of the same continent, and by the fact that changes 
in the relative level between sea and main land are still going on in 
our day. 

Indications of such relative changes between the level of the 
waters and the land are also observed about Lake Superior. And 
here they assume a very pecuHar character, as the level of the lake 
itself, in its relation to its shores, is extensively changed. 

All around Lake Superior we observe terraces at different levels ; 
and these terraces vary in height, from a few feet above the present 
level of the lake, to several hundred feet above its surface, presenting 
everywhere undoubted evidence, that they were formed by the 
waters of the lake itself. 

As everywhere the lake shores are strewed with sand and pebbles 
stranded within certain limits by the waves, the lowest accumulations 
of loose materials remain within the action of heavy storms, and 
within such limit they are entirely deprived of vegetation. 

Next, another set of beaches is observed, consisting generally of 
coarser materials, forming shelves above the reach of even the severest 
storms, as shown by the scanty cryptogamous vegetation, and a few 
small herbaceous plants which have grown upon them. 

Next, other beaches, retreating more and more from the shores, 
are observed, upon which an older vegetation is traced, consisting of 
shrubs, small trees, and a larger number of different plants, among 
which extensive carpets of wonderful lichens sometimes spread over 
large surfaces of greater extent. And the gentle slope of some of 
the terraces shows that the lake must have stood at this level for a 
longer time, as higher banks rise precipitously above them, consisting 
also of loose materials, which must have been worn out and washed 
away, for a considerable time, by the action of the waves from the 
lake. In such a manner, terrace above terrace may be observed, 
in retreating sheltered bays or along protected shores, over exten- 
sive tracts ; sometimes two or three in close proximity, perhaps 
within twenty to fifty feet of each other ; and again, extensive flat 
shores, spreading above to another abrupt bank, making the former 



414 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

shore, above which other and other terraces are seen ; six, ten, even 
fifteen such terraces may be distinguished on one spot, forming, as it 
were, the steps of a gigantic amphitheatre. The most remarkable of 
all the amphitheatres has been sketched by Mr. Cabot, and forms the 
frontispiece to this volume. Its height has been determined by Mr. 
Logan, in his Geographical Report of Canada, page 10, where it is 
minutely described. I therefore refer to this account for further de- 
tails. I would only mention here, that the first shelf, within the reach 
of the lake, consists of minute sand, and forms a narrow strip of sterile 
ground along the water-edge ; next, we have a slope of about lO'^, fol- 
lowed by a flat terrace, extending for nearly fifty paces to a seconl 
very steep slope, about 26^ and 30° inclination ; then, a sloping ter- 
race with an inclination of near 16°, stretching for eighty to a hundred 
paces, above which rises another steep slope of 20°, beyond which 
an extensive fiat, slightly sloping, extends for several hundred paces, 
crowned by some irregular ridges at its summit, and along the rocky 
ledges which form the bay at the bottom of which this high gravel 
bank rises. 

In connection with these lake terraces, we must consider also the 
river terraces which present similar phenomena along their banks all 
around the lake, with the diSerence that they slope gradually along 
the water courses, otherwise resembling in their composition the lake 
terraces, which are altogether composed of remodeled glacial drift, 
which, from the influence of the water and their having been rolled 
on the shores, have lost, more or less, their scratches and polished ap- 
pearance, and have assumed the dead smoothness of water pebbles. 
Such terraces occur frequently between the islands, or cover low necks 
connecting promontories with the main land, thus showing, on a small 
scale, how by the accumulation of loose materials, isolated islands 
may be combined to form larger ones, and how, in the course of time, 
by the same process, islands may be connected with the main land. 

The lake shores present another series of interesting phenomena, 
especially near the mouth of larger rivers emptying into the lake 
over flats, where parallel walls of loose materials, driven by the action 
of the lake against the mouth of the river, have successively stopped 
its course and caused it to wind its way between the repeated accu- 
mulations of such obstacles. 



THE ERRATIC PHENOMENA. 415 

The lower course of Michipicotin River is for several miles clammed 
up in that way by concentric walls, across which the river has cut 
its bed, and winding between them, has repeatedly changed its direc- 
tion, breaking through the successive walls in different places. The 
largest and lowest of these walls, a kind of river terrace near the 
margin of the lake, shuts at present the factory from the immediate 
lake shoi'e and the river, which has cut its way between the rocks to 
the right and the walls, has left a bold bank in this dam on its left 
shore. 

An important question now arises, after considering these facts, 
how these successive changes in the relative level of the lake and its 
shores have been introduced. Has the water been gradually sub- 
siding, or has the shore been repeatedly lifted up ? Merely from 
the general inferences of the more extensive phenomena described 
above, respecting the relative changes between land and sea, I 
should be inclined to admit that the land has risen, rather than to 
suppose that the waters have gradually flowed out. But there are 
about the lake itself sufficient proofs, which leave in my mind not 
the slightest doubt that it is the land which has changed its level, 
and not the lake which has subsided. 

In the first place, to suppose that the lake had once stood as high 
as the highest terraces, it would be necessary to admit that its banks 
were, all round its shores, sufficiently high to keep the water at that 
highest level, or, at least, that there were, at the lower outlets, bars 
to that height, which have been gradually removed since. But 
neither is the main land sufficiently high, at the western extremity 
and along the southern shores, to admit of such a supposition, nor is 
there about the outlet of the lake, between Gros Gap and Cap Iro- 
quois, an indication of a barrier which has been gradually removed. 
There, as everywhere along the lake shores, the loose movable mate- 
rials consist of the same drift, the accumulation of which, at various 
levels, we are aiming to account for. If, therefore, we consider this 
same drift as the barrier under whose protection the lake modeled 
other parts of its mass, we should be compelled to admit another 
cause to remove the barrier, a supposition for which there is not the 
slightest indication in the geological structure of the country. But 
ifj on the contrary, we suppose the lake to have removed the barrier, 



418 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

there is no cause left for its accumulation, and the changes in the 
comparative level of the main land and the terraces remain equally 
unaccounted for. 

Indeed, the terraces are so unequal in their absolute level when 
compared to each other, that a gradual subsidence of the lake remov- 
ing a barrier of loose materials at its outlet could never explain their 
irregularity. But if we suppose that the innumerable dykes which 
cross, in all directions, the rocks which form the shores of the lake, 
have at various intervals lifted up these shores, we have at the same 
time a cause for the change of the relative level between the terraces 
and the lake, and also for the change of its absolute level, as it 
removed larger and larger portions of materials accumulated at its 
eastern extremity. 

That these dykes have produced such changes will not be doubted 
by any one who may study the phenomena described in the follow- 
ing chapter respecting the origin of the present outlines of the lakes, 
as produced by the intersection of all the dykes traversing the 
metamorphic and plutonic rocks of the northern shores. 

We should therefore conclude that, as there has been a general 
gradual change between the relative level of the main land and sea, 
so there has also been a gradual local change in the relative level of 
the lake and its shores ; and hence the local phenomena would only 
corroborate the induction derived from more general geological facts. 



XI. 

THE OUTLINES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Since it has been ascertained that the present form of the surface 
of our globe, and the distribution of land and water and their rela- 
tive level, and the general outline of their contact, is the result of 
the successive geological changes which our globe has undergone, 
the efforts of geologists have more or less had in view to ascertain 
the order of succession of these phenomena, and their mutual depen- 
dence. One result is already established beyond question, namely, 
that the changes which have brought about the present physical 
state of our globe have been successive and gradual, and have 
followed each other at more or less remote epochs. So that its pres- 
ent configuration, far from being the result of one creative act, must 
be considered as the combination of a series of successive changes ; 
fa from being moulded like a bell at one furnace, it has been built 
up by successive superstructures. This is not merely a view adopted 
in accordance with our theories and preferences, but it is actually 
shown by geological evidence, that the solid parts which constitute 
the crust of our globe have been consolidated at different epochs, 
and have been lifted to the surface above the level of the sea at long 
distant intervals ; so that continents are known to have been built 
up by the successive rise of groups of islands, combining, by their 
gradual elevation above the level of the sea, into larger tracts of 
main land, until they have assumed their present definite outline and 
general relations. 

The modes in which these changes have taken place have been 
quite diversified. We have indications of large tracts of land ex- 
tending in horizontal continuity over great extents at considerable 
heights above the level of the sea. 
28 



418 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

We have in other instances, ridges of mountain chains intersecting 
the plains and forming prominent walls in various directions across 
the more level country. We have again isolated peaks rising like 
pyramids above the surrounding country, — shallow waters covering 
large flats, — deep excavations extending over considerable parts of 
the ocean, — or narrow chasms, precipitous holes increasing the diver- 
sitv of the bottom of the sea, as mountain chains, volcanic cones, 
high plateaus, deep valleys, rolling hills, and flat plains modify the 
aspect of the main land. And all these differences, all these pecu- 
liar features have been introduced grffdually and successively b}' the 
combined action of the elevation of the land, and recession of the 
sea ; by the uplifting of the solid crust by volcanic and plutonic 
action, and by the abrading influence of water currents, and the 
regular undulations of the ocean tides. 

Taking the whole globe in its general appearance, we can thus 
trace to the agency of a few influences, repeated at long intervals in 
different ways, all the phenomena we observe upon its surface. And 
the order of succession of the isolated events which have thus modi- 
fied the surface of our globe has been ascertained with such unex- 
pected precision, that at present, the relative age of the different 
geological events is established with as much certainty as the great 
periods in the history of mankind. 

There is, however, one direction in which these investigations 
need to be followed out still farther. The secondary events of 
minor extent and less prominent importance have to be studied with 
the same precision, and perhaps with even more detail, than the 
general phenomena have been, up to the present time. After work- 
ing out the general history of our globe, we have, as it were, to . 
write its memoirs, the anecdotic part of the relation, and try to 
contribute in this minute investigation to a fuller illustration of its 
history. After ascertaining, in a general way, that the elevation of 
mountain chains, the rise of extensive tracts of land, have marked 
out the general outlines of continents and their limits with reference 
to the ocean ; knowing, for instance, that the Scandinavian Alps de- 
termine the general form of Norway and Sweden ; that Spain is 
separated from France by a high mountain range ; that it owes its 



OUTLINES OF LAKE SUPERIOR, 419 

square form to the direction of its mountain chains precisely as Italy 
derives its form from the direction of its mountains ; after having 
satisfied ourselves that the existence of an almost unbroken chain of 
the highest mountains, over the centre of Europe and Asia, consti- 
tutes the main difference in the physical features of the Old World, 
when contrasted with those of America, where the principal moun- 
tains run north and south ; after having thus ascertained the inti- 
mate relation there is in general, between geological phenomena and 
the geography of continents, the physical features of the different 
parts of the world, it is a subject worthy of our attention to investi- 
gate how far the particular features we may distinguish in a given 
circumscribed locality may be ascribed to similar agencies, and to 
subordinate influences depending upon the same general principles, 
which have been active in the production of the general frame. 

Are the Swiss lakes, for instance, with their pecuHar form, as 
naturally the consequence of geological phenomena as the general 
features of the country ? Are the numerous fiords of Norway 
and Maine owing to the same cause ? Is there any connection 
which can be appreciated with any degree of precision between the 
general course of rivers on one continent, or in various parts of the 
same continent ? And can a single lake, for instance Lake Superior, 
be analyzed, so as to refer the bearings of its outlines to precise 
geological phenomena ? 

The knowledge I had before visiting Lake Superior, of the direct 
connection of many of these apparently subordinate features in the 
physical aspect of a country, with the main geological phenomena 
upon which it rests, led me, during my excursions on this continent, 
to keep this subject constantly in view. I had seen how the Lakes of 
Neuchatel and Bienne were excavated at the junction of the Jura, 
and the tertiary deposit at its base ; I had noticed that the Alpine 
lakes followed fissures at right angles with the axis of elevation of 
the Alps. I was aware that some of these lakes consist of two 
distinct parts, probably formed at different periods, but now united by 
the sheet of water filling them. 

With such intimations, the great Canadian lakes, which form so 
naturally a boundary between the Northern United States and the 
British possessions upon this continent, could not but strongly call 



4-0 l-AKK SUI'KltlOll. 

for an invoati^ation of tlioir niiturn-l loiit.un>H; Rotno ninninfj; oaat and 
wost, othci'H Htnii;^lit north a,n(l Hoiitli, iind oiluu'H Jorniin;!; a n^^iilar 
ci'CHcont'., witli its convoxity tinMiod nortlivvanlH. TIkmi' absolute jx)- 
silioii is ;iJ. oncti cliiuiu'tcristic, TlKiy ivro oxcavatod chieHy between 
the |)Iu((»iii(i iii!iss(\s risiu;;; north, mihI th(> strutiruHl d(>])osits Bouth of 
the |iriiiii(iv(! rMn;!;(>. 

lj;ilio Superior, cspcciMJly, lills m, chMSiu between the northern 
;i;rani(i(! and nu'tMuiorphic r;in,i:;<', and tho ohh'st b(Mls ih^posited 
alou'j; tli(>ir soul hern slopes in th(^ |triniitiv(> !i,l!;o of tliis (Continent. 
Ijiike ()iit;nio iuid Lnle I'lrie, on llie conlrMi'v, run between th(> suc- 
cessive hiyors ol" dilVerent setsoC bods of tho same ^rciit ^co;j;r;>|)hical 
period; whihi liid^es IIin-ouMnd Miehii;Mn (ill )ip tli(> (U'Mcks which 
run at i'iii;ht ati!j;les with iJie ni;iin northern priniilivt^ r:tii;;t>, :uid 
wliieh, no (loui>t., ow(> tht'ir oni:;iu to the eievaiiou ol' th(> chains north 
of halve Huron and JjaJu; Su|>(>rior ; repeatini;-, on a lar^c^ S(;alo, 
what has been said above of the (l(>pendence of the Swiss lakes 
upon tJH'ir L:;eoloL';ieal positions and relation to Ihi^ mountain ciiains 
which eneirch^ them. 

Besides this ;j;eu(U"a.l ndation of the lakes in couneetion with their 
shores, I ha.V(> been able to trace a. more uilunat(> counecliou of the 
outlines ol" their shores and tlii-ir ;^(>oloi;ical strnctui'c, (>sp(>ciallv in 
|jak(» Supei'ior. 

As a whol(>,tliat lake r(>S(Mubles a. larii;e crescent, with its convexity 
turned northwards; but it wcvc a, ^real mistake to imagine that this 
foi'in is actuallv thc^ I'orui of tlu^ shores, or that, it is iv^pi^atcd upon 
(>\('i'v point. On the coulrary, the ij;(>ueral outline of that, lakc^ is 
tlu> accidental result ol" the combination of many details, of many 
<:;eolo;!;ical ev(>nts which have I"o11ow(mI (>ach other at dilfcrent jjoriods,- 
hav(> modified the tract of land where th(> Inko now exists, ivnd liavo 
cut up its l"oundation in such a^ mannei' as to break the continuil\' of 
l;h(^ solid rock, and allow it to be decomposed. Thus an (Jxtcnsivo 
erescent-sha])cd iiole with inn(nu(>rable islands lias been fornuMl, in 
which the islands, in their various bearings, still indicate* the direction 
oi" (h(> intcrscctin;:; masses, and appear at pr(\sent as tlu> frai^meutary 
remains o[' u eontinuous tract of land, which is now ri-phuu'd by a 
d«>ep lake. 

for many weeks 1 had been tracin;:; tlu> dvkt.>s which intersect the 



OUTLFMOS OF LAKK BUI'KIUOU. 421 

sliorofl of Tifiko Su[)orior in ulinost all (lir(!(;iioMM,\vlH)n I was onn day 
nioHfc lorciljly Htnick wiUi i\m I'jict, Uuih Uicmo dykoH ii'^rci^, in tlioir 
bcaringH, ■with tho boarin^^H of IIm! nliorcH ; jukI tlial, (ivnti tlio ;^r<!at,()Ht 
complicaUotiH iti Uio onUinos of tJic, Hlion;,-( cduM lio accouiiUMl for, by 
til'! C(>rnt)iri;i,t,ioiin ol" (lyk<!H itil,(5rHc(;t,iri^ ('.',i(;\\ fdJior in diU'c-niiit, dircc- 
tioTiH. And ind(!(!d, now llial, I liiivo IJk: k(!y ("or iuirli ;ui JuiidyHiH, 
I find no dillicnlty in rof'orrin^, oven Hborb linoH ol" Uic coaHl,, to 
the dillorcrit HyHtcms of" dykcH whi(;b I know to cxiHt tlicro, and 
wbcrover my memoranda are Hnlli(;i<rit,ly lull, I lioil indieatioiiH of 
dykoH rnnnin;^ in tlif; direction of the eoiiHt. Ah Hoon aH my attention 
had been ealled to tlieno phenomena, I. iont no opf)ortunity ol' invest- 
i;^atin;j; tho nature of tho rock of tlioHe dilierent nyHt(!mH of dykes, 
and 1 ascertained, to my groat astonishment, that there are consid- 
er.'i})le diirerenees in their mineraloj^iea! characters ; some beiri;.'; am- 
f)hiliolic tra|) ; others bein;^ inj'-etfid with (![)idote ; otlnirs having 
moie tlif; ;ip|)c;i.r;uiee of pit.eliHtone ; ;i,nd, what is parlieida,rly inter- 
(jstin;.';, tlx; dykes which nni in the sajrie direction |)res<!rv<; the same 
mineralo;^ical character, as well as the namc! bearinn;. 

'J'hc systems of dykes which run <lir(;f;tly north and Honth, and 
■which form the inlets hetw<;en Nef!f)i;^f»n l»ay and the ma,in lake,a,nd 
int'-i'sect the lar;//; ishmd of St. I;jrnace, and H(!para,t(! St. Jgnaco 
t/5'iticlf fr-om the main land, a,ll rnn north a,nd south, and consist of 
very hard, ton;^h, unalterable liornbhinde trafi, of a crystalline 
aspfct, and a grayish color ; while tlie dykes, which run east and 
■west, and mark out tlie northern and southern shorcH of those Hamo 
islands, consist mostly of a greenish trap extensively injected with 
cpidote, and breaking with tJie greatest ease into angular, iiregular 
fragments. 'J'he nf>rthern shore east of tlie Pic has the same general 
bearing, duo oast and west ; and here, also, we lind the dykes moro 
or less e[)idotic, and the metamorphic rocks talcose. 

Again, the long shore running due east a,nd west from iVJifdiifiicf)- 
tin westwards, is, also, along its whole extent, intersected by epidotic 
dyl.<!S runnirig east and west. 

'I he dykes of tin; north-eastern coast of the lake between the I'ic 
and Michif)ieotin Island, which nm north north-east to south south- 
west,, consist ()\' a [)itch,Hton(; traf», lik<! black glass, whifdi, notwith- 
Btiinding its external hardness, readily decomposes, and i'orms almost 



422 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

everywhere along these shores, coves, deep coves, narrow, straight 
inlets, small caves, and gives to the whole extent of that shore that 
peculiar aspect which distinguishes it so much from the other parts 
of the lake. 

The more precipitous shores — almost vertical walls, and those pe- 
culiar modes of decomposition of the rocks which have left strange 
appearances in the masses, some of which have even been noticed 
by the Indian voyageurs, as Otter Head, for instance — the number- 
less exceedingly small islands of these shores, and the striking bald" 
ness of the overhanging rocks, are all of them most remarkable 
features. Though these examples are very striking, and may at 
once satisfy the mind that the most minute details in the pecuHar 
features of the lake may be ascribed to geological agency, we never- 
theless find still more striking evidence of this connection between 
the geological structure of the country and its form, along the north- 
western shore, west of St. Ignace, and between Isle Royale and 
Fort WilHam. Three other systems of dykes here intersect the 
rocks, and give to the whole shore an entirely different aspect. At 
first sight, the bearings of the north-westerly shore appear already 
different from those of the northern shore proper, and the eastern 
shore, as their general course is north-east and south-west from the 
southern extremity of St. Ignace to Pigeon Bay, to which Isle Roy- 
ale is parallel. But upon a close examination of these shores, it 
becomes obvious that this general feature is modified in various ways 
by the lines of the shore intersecting each other at acute angles, in 
three directions, and each of these different directions correspond 
exactly to as many systems of independent dykes. The eastern and 
western shores of Thunder Bay, or rather of the peninsula of Thun- 
der Cape, run north-east, and parallel to them we have the cliffs of the 
shores south of Fort William, and west of Pic Island, which present 
the same bearings, as well as the shores of Black Bay also. The 
dykes which run in that direction are narrow belts of black trap. 
Nearly in the same direction, and very different in their mineralogi- 
cal character, we find another set of dykes which run almost due 
north-east and south-west. The direction of these dykes is best indi- 
cated by a series of islands south of Sturgeon Bay, forming several 
parallel ridges, one of which consists of a series of small islands 



OUTLINES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 423 

known under the name of Victoria and Spar Islands, and the other 
islands continuous Avith Sturgeon Island, in the prolongation of which 
•we meet the most prominent djkes of Pic Island itself. The whole 
of Isle Royale lies in that direction, and the numerous promontories 
of its eastern extremity are particularly remarkable for their agree- 
ment, both in direction and geological structure, with the Victoria 
group of islands. The system is particularly rich in copper ores, and 
presents the most beautiful development of spathic veins. As I have 
not myself examined Point Keewenaw, I cannot say how far the 
prominent ridges there agree with those of Isle Royale and the Vic- 
toria Islands ; but the agreement in the direction of the promon- 
tory itself is most striking ; and the fact that this is the main centre 
of copper injections suggests the probability that Point Keewenaw 
also belongs, in its principal features, to this system ; and I should 
not be in the least surprised if La Pointe and Whitefish Point de- 
rive their main features from dykes of the same system, though 
their solid foundation is concealed by accumulations of sand. The 
third system in this north-eastern shore runs east north-east near east, 
and is particularly marked along the southern shore of Thunder 
Cape peninsula, along which the dykes are nearly east and west, as 
just mentioned, deviating sufficiently to the north, however, to be 
clearly distinct from the dykes which form the shores from the Pic to 
St. Ignace, or from Michipicotin to Otter Head. And the nature of 
the rock of these dykes differs widely from the last, there being no 
epidotic injections accompanying them, and the trap being, on the 
contrary, of a light grayish color, resembling more the system which 
runs due north and south than any other. 

So we have here six distinct systems of dykes, which contribute 
mainly to the formation of the northern shore of Lake Superior. 

1. System of Michipicotin, running east and west. (See the 
annexed chart of the OutUnes of Lake Superior.) 

2. System of the Pic running north 30° west. 

3. System of Neepigon, running due north and south. 

4. System of Black Bay, running north 30° east. 

5. System of Thunder Cape, running east 30° north. 

6. System of Isle Royale, running east 45° north. 



424 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

The large group of islands on the southern and eastern side of 
Black Bay, and south-west of St. Ignace, consists of innumerable 
islets, separated from each other by the close intersection of the three 
systems of dykes, which appear more prominent and strongly marked 
in their features further west, in Isle Royale and Victoria Islands, 
and about Thunder Bay. 

But besides these six clearly defined systems, there seem to be 
two more, or at least one other distinct system running due north-west 
and south-east, cutting at right angles through Spar Island, and re- 
appearing, as I understand from verbal communications of Mr. Foster, 
further south upon Point Keewenaw. This system is perhaps the 
cause of the bearing of the shores between Keewenaw Bay and Dead 
River ; also of the outlet of Lake Superior between Point Iroquois 
and Gros Cap along the river St. Mary, unless this eastern system 
of intersection be distinct from the more western one. 

But however this may be, so much is plain ; — that at least six 
distinct systems of dykes, with peculiar characteristic trap, forming 
parallel ridges in the same system, but varying, for different angles, 
between the different systems, intersect the northern shores of Lake 
Superior, and have probably cut up the whole tract of rock, over the 
space which is now filled by the lake, in such a way as to destroy its 
continuity ; to produce depressions, and to have gradually created an 
excavation Avhich now forms the lake, and thus to have given to it 
its present outline. This process of intersection, these successive 
injections of difierent materials, have evidently modified, at various 
epochs, the relative level of the lake and land, and probably also 
occasioned the modification which we notice in the deposition of the 
shore drift, and the successive amphitheatric terraces which border, at 
various heights, its shores. 

A more minute analysis of the mineralogical character of these 
dykes would no doubt aflbrd satisfactory evidence of their original 
independence, and perhaps lead, in connection. with a fuller investi- 
gation of their intersections, to the means of ascertaining their rela- 
tive age. But I became fully aware of the geological importance 
and independence of these difierent systems of dykes only during 
my return, after leaving the neighborhood of Thunder Cape, the 
ground where this part of the subject might be best studied, and 



OUTLINES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 425 

therefore I can now only call the attention of geologists to these 
facts, in the hope that they may, at some future time, be more fully 
investigated. 

The whole range of rocks which constitutes the northern shore of 
Lake Superior is so extensively metamorphic, and so thoroughly in- 
jected in all directions by veins intersecting each other, that it is no 
easy task to analyze their relations ; and for a full illustration of this 
subject, minute maps of well-selected localities are required, such as 
travelling geologists on an occasional visit can scarcely prepare. But 
I should bo perfectly satisfied to see these hints more completely 
wrought by others, satisfied, as I am, to have shown, at least, how a 
minute investigation of the geological phenomena of a restricted 
locality may lead to a better understanding of the origin of the geo- 
graphical features of a country. 

But let me repeat that it were a great mistake to ascribe the 
present form of Lake Superior to any single geological event. Its 
position in the main is no doubt determined by a dislocation between 
the primitive range north and the sedimentary deposit south. 

But the working out of the details of its present form is owing to 
a series of injections of trap dykes of different characters, traversing 
the older rocks, in various directions, which, from their mineralogical 
differences, have no doubt been produced at different successive 
periods. 

The diversity of rocks which occur on Lake Superior is very great, 
and there are varieties observed there which seem to be peculiar to 
that district, presenting innumerable transitions from one to another, 
of which the Alps even do not present more extensive examples. 

Of these we have new red sandstone passing into porphyries, 
into quartzites, granites, and gneiss, the metamorphisra being more or 
less perfect, so that the stratification is sometimes still preserved, or 
passes gradually into absolutely massive rocks. Again, the dykes 
intersect other rocks almost without altering them, or the alterations 
in the immediate contact are so intense as to leave no precise lines 
of demarcation between the dyke and the injected rock. But here 
again, the phenomena are so complicated, that unless the illustration 
be accompanied by a very detailed map it were useless to enter into 
more minute descinptions. 
29 



426 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

The collections I have made of these rocks are sufficiently exten- 
sive to affi)rd materials for such an illustration, and I may, perhaps, 
on another occasion, publish a more detailed account of the geological 
features of the northern shores, unless the expected publication of 
the geological survey of Canada by Mr. Logan, renders this essay 
superfluous. 

I would here acknowledge the benefit I have derived in my in- 
vestigations from the published reports of this survey, and also from 
the verbal communications of Mr. McLeod of Sault St. Marie. The 
rocks which occur on the northern shores are so characteristic that 
they cannot be mistaken, and even should the materials which I 
have collected not be published more in full, they will at all events 
aflbrd to those who study the geological distribution of erratic bould- 
ers, valuable means of comparison, which will show that most of the 
erratics which occur in the northern parts of the United States are 
derived from the primitive range extending north of the lakes reach- 
ing along Canada and the United States to the Atlantic Ocean. 

Among these rocks there is a variety of deep red felspar por- 
phyry speckled with epidote, which, from its brilliant color, partic- 
ularly attracts attention, and which occurs all along the northern 
shore from the Pic to Thunder Bay. This variety I have not 
observed farther east, and it may perhaps be taken as a guide to 
ascertain the range of erratics derived from the northern shore of 
Lake Superior. 



XII. 

GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE VARIOUS COPPER 
DEPOSITS OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 



The general distribution of the different copper ores in the region 
of Lake Superior, presents some facts which seem to me to have a 
direct bearing upon the theory of their origin. It is a very remark- 
able circumstance that the largest masses of native copper should 
occur upon Point Keewenaw, and that the non-metallic ores should 
be diffused at various distances from the central region where the 
largest masses of native metallic copper occur. The various sul- 
phurets and carbonates are found on the northern shores and about 
Lake Huron, in far greater proportion, and over a wider extent, than 
anywhere nearer the metaUic centre. The black oxide itself is 
found beyond the limits of the large metallic masses, and nearer to 
them than the other ores. I cannot help thinking that this particu- 
lar distribution has direct reference to the manner in which these 
various copper ores were diffused in the country where they occur. 
They seem to me clearly to indicate that the native copper is all 
plutonic ; that its larger masses were thrown up in a melted state ; 
and that from the main fissure through which they have found their 
way, they spread in smaller injections at considerable distances ; but 
upon the larger masses in the central focus, the surrounding rocks 
could have little influence. New chemical combinations could hardly 
be formed between so compact masses, presenting, in comparison 
with their bulk, a small surface for contact with other mineral sub- 
stances capable of being chemically combined with the copper. But 
where, at a distance, the mass was diffused in smaller proportions into 



428 LAKE SUPERIOR. 

innumerable minute fissures, and thus presented a comparatively 
large surface of contact with the surrounding rocks, there the most 
diversified combinations could be formed, and thus the various ores 
appear in this characteristic distribution. The relations which these 
ores bear to the rocks in which they are contained, sustain fully this 
view, and even the circumstance that the black oxide is found in the 
vicinity of the main masses, when the sulphurets and carbonates 
occur at greater distances from them, would show that this ore is the 
result of the oxidation of some portion of the large metallic masses 
exposed more directly to the influence of oxygen in the process of 
cooling. Indeed, the phenomena respecting the distribution of the 
copper about Lake Superior, in all their natural relations, answer so 
fully to this view, that the whole process might easily be reproduced 
artificially on a small scale ; and it appears strange to me that so 
many doubts can still be expressed respecting the origin of the cop- 
per about Lake Superior, and that this great feature of the distribu- 
tion of its various ores should have been so totally overlooked. 




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